Mass Effect: Humasari
by Javamonsoon
Summary: Ellyon Shepard-T'soni, the daughter of Shepard and T'soni, is revealed to be a Sarat-Zashi, a counter-biotic. Dealing with the implications of that proves to be difficult, not in the last place for Ellyon. Is there truth in Ellyon's belief that she's equally human and asari, as she would call it, humasari? And Dr. Pol is a bad, bad word... I give up trying FF to accept it.
1. Tiger, Tiger (William Blake)

Mass Effect: Humasari.

2012 Javamonsoon.

Dedicated to you, dear reader.

**The Tiger**

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright  
In the forest of the night  
What immortal hand or eye  
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies  
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
On what wings dare he aspire?  
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And What shoulder, and what art,  
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?  
And when thy heart began to beat,  
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?  
In what furnace was thy brain?  
What the anvil? what dread grasp  
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,  
And watered heaven with their tears,  
Did he smile his work to see?  
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright  
In the forests of the night,  
What immortal hand or eye  
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake


	2. Talk we don't

Ellyon Shepard-T'Soni resented Earth. She resented London, because the reason her mothers had decided to take up living there was because of "Uncle David". And he croaked on the Citadel, that stupid spacestation you could see from Earth. Heck, she could even see the goddess-forsaken thing when she looked out of her bedroom window!

Ellyon stood in the middle of the livingroom of the inner-city lucky few luxury condo with the great view on the floating Citadel and the new London Eye Ferris Wheel, clenched her fists, grinded her teeth, stamped girlishly with her right foot and shouted, "I wish I had normal mothers!"

Liara T'soni looked at her daughter, visibly hurt, but Shinobu Shepard stiffled a smile doing her best to keep a straight face while their fifteen year old daughter was stamping her foot into a carpet so fluffy it muffled the sound of her stamping. It reminded Shinobu of herself, lifetimes ago somewhere in deepspace... 'I wish I was born on a planet!'

She wasn't much older than her daughter back then, her sleek black hair in strands in her face, hunched forward, seething with rage, while her parents watched her with their infuriatingly calm oriental faces. They had let her rage, scream, stamp, jump and didn't even flinch when she started rolling around on the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Shortly after that, her parents took shore-leave on Mindoir. Mindoir was a welcome change and running around in the woods, feeling the wind grace her skin and move her hair worked wonders on Shinobu Shepard. Real air, real sky, real animals and three days in the hospital due to real animals induced injury didn't leave Shinobu wanting for more. She was ready to apologize to her parents and to accept life as a navy-brat. But Mindoir was something she would never forget and kept returning too, even though the colony was razed by slavers, retaken and rebuild.

The colony even used her likeliness in it's colonial seal nowadays and always made a big show when she took her family to Mindoir during extended shore-leave. Even when Shinobu tried to sneak into Mindoir they knew somehow and out came the ticker-tape and the inevitable parade with marching bands and a glowing speech by the colony's president.

Mindoir credit-chits even carried a picture of the Shepard-T'Soni family with the unreadable Shinobu Shepard on the left, a broadly smiling Liara T'Soni on the right and their brooding teenage daughter Ellyon in the middle. Mindoir was the only place in the galaxy where the family appeared on money.

Liara sighed helplessly, "This is all you, Shino." Shinobu kept looking at Ellyon, who was still riding high on her tantrum-fueled adrenaline and returned, "I'm sure her krogan heritage isn't helping..."

Liara gave up completely and walked over to a couch where she just let herself fall. It was so not how she had imagined all this when she found out that she was pregnant. It all went smoothly enough in the early years, raising Ellyon while shadowbrokering out of London. Shinobu was promoted to Admiral and given a desk because there were still more admirals than that there were fleets so her bondmate was home often too.

But as Ellyon grew, so did her human side. Puberty struck Ellyon hard, something the asari had not experienced before. Suddenly Shinobu wasn't home often enough and Liara was doing way more shadowbrokering than needed. And Ellyon spiraled more and more out of control.

The mighty shadow broker, a person who struck fear in thousands of souls and who juggled with the future of planets, burried herself as deep into the couch as she could because the only person who couldn't give a godess' scalpplate about the power she commanded and openly defied her was her own daughter. An asari like her, but at the same time so terrifyingly alien it scared her. She figured that Ellyon could even scare a 700 year old Ardat-Yakshi with her behavior.

Shinobu Shepard took a few steps towards her daughter and took both her hands before bringing her face level with Ellyon's. Shinobu's oriental features lended her a stoic face which many people mistook for detached disinterest. Reserved to the point of being unaproachable.

Shinobu said something to Ellyon, something Liara couldn't make out because Shinobu was using her mother to daughter voice. A voice Liara was secretly jealous of because Shinobu had never used it on her. It was the same voice she heard first when Shinobu, unawares of Liara's presence was singing lullabies for their infant daughter. A voice so out of place on a woman who could kill a person without thinking twice, it was even scarier than Ellyon's tantrums, but at the same time all kinds of magical. The most magical thing asari could come up with was "Embrace Eternity." and eyes going over black. No asari had a special voice in her bag of tricks, but all humans had the power to strike a tone of voice that made them different persons on the fly.

Admiral Shepard had stopped being an admiral, maybe even had stopped being Shinobu Shepard for all Liara knew.

But then Shinobu said something that set Ellyon off again. A loud, wet sounding crunch cut off Ellyon's screaming and Liara bolted from the couch. Mother and daughter were looking at eachother, both unbelieving, unwilling to accept what had just happened. Ellyon was holding a hand to her left cheek while her huge human colored hazel eyes stared at Shinobu in shock. Shinobu, realising that she had just struck her daughter tried to take Ellyon in a hugging embrace, but before she could Ellyon turned and fled the living room.

Both mothers followed hot on her trail but were stopped when they found the door to Ellyon's room locked. They knocked on the door and tried to reason with their rebellious daughter, but each time they tried, Ellyon put more effort in her wailing. Eventually, Ellyon cried herself to sleep leaving her mothers for chopped liver at the other side of the door.

"I'll get pillows and a blanket.", Shinobu said and disappeared into the master bedroom. Liara didn't say anything but just stood there looking into nothing. When Shinobu returned she accepted her pillow automatically and both women plopped down on the floor, backs to their daughter's bedroom door as they had done so many times in the past. As Shinobu tried to distribute the blanket evenly she whispered, "We'll get through this, Liara."

Liara rested her head on Shinobu's left shoulder and said nothing. Sleeping outside their daughter's bedroom door was their anti-runaway trick and it had happened too many times for Liara to find it fun anymore.

Long after Liara dozed off, Shinobu was still awake, all oriental like and stone faced. A face that had won more than one hand of Skyllian Five, but also a face that was absolutely wasted on a small asari teenager. Soflty, Shinobu repeated an age old mantra over and over again.

Ohm Mani Padme Hum.

Then, at long last, sleep overpowered her too.


	3. Bundle of joy

It had been Liara's wish that Karin Chackwas, Alliance shipdoctor and prominent human expert on asari physiology would be the midwife for Ellyon's birth. It had ruffled the feathers of many high profile asari physicians who had glamored to be at the birth of the daughter to the most famous asari in the galaxy. The discontent grew so high that even Emily Wong devoted an entire newscast to the "birthing controversy", succeeding in remaining neutral at that too. Asari journalists weren't so neutral, claiming that Liara's wish was concerted by Shinobu Shepard and her human sycophants.

When even Fornax decided to chime in with an enacted foto-docu about the moment Ellyon was conceived using two look-alike pornstars (There were many "Shepard goes azure" omni-tool vids already.), the Council stepped in, with the human and asari councilors issuing a joint statement saying that a human doctor was a sensible choice since Ellyon would be part human.

Out of thin air, tabloids called the statement Ellyon-Gate and started to publish "evidence" that Ellyon was named after the Shadow Broker and that the Shadow Broker was telling the Council what to do concerning Liara's pregnancy. Asari tabloids on their end ran away with Ellyon-Gate to proof that Liara T'Soni had a secret wish to be human and that she was working with Dr. Chackwas to have in-utero treatments so that her unborn daughter would be born looking more human than asari.

It became even more surreal when the hanar came to the defense of the couple, holding vigils in front of their London house and singing religious songs 24/7 to support the true friends of the enkindlers. The hanar press-statements were incoherent babble about displeased enkindlers, angry drells and lovely enkindler fearing human asari babies. But the part about angry drells stuck.

When one of the most vocal asari tabloid journalists died of a common cardiac arrest after a night of booze and halex, everyone agreed that the hanar had set their drell assassins to work on the request of Liara T'Soni.

Admiral Shepard could no longer appear in public and the Alliance put her on leave of absence, essentially giving her house-arrest. The City of London decreed an emergency law that forbid gatherings larger than two "entities" in front of the couple's house, which lead to the arrest of many hanar preachers who were demanding the right to support the true friends of the enkindlers.

Journalists were not convinced that the hanar weren't involved which lead to one particular interesting series of newvids in which the notorious tabloid journalist Al Jalani taped herself barricading her house while talking in a hushed voice about the many gruesome ways drell assassins killed their prey, none of those ways based on reality. Other journalists, following Al Jalani's cue, taped themselves making up stories of how they had escaped Earth one step ahead of the Hanar Hellions, a moniker for the drell assassins that had quickly gained popularity in the news.

The Council, looking for a solution, found themselves in a meeting with Admiral Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy, who offered to replace the human guards in front of the couple's house with Quarian Marines. Jumping at the chance to remove as many humans as possible from the equation, Tali's offer was quickly accepted and Marines from the newly formed Kal'Reegar Brigade took the positions of the human guards. Close on the heels of the Kal'Reegar Brigade followed a Geth Prime who started to patrol the streets surrounding the London Luxury Condo. The Prime wasn't summoned, asked or ordered. When asked by the daring but respectable journalist Diana Allers, the Prime merely stated that

he tried to repay a debt that could never be repaid. It was quickly decided that the Prime was better left alone, lest it would be antagonized in some way or another. The Kal'Reegar Brigade and the Prime did succeed in bringing much needed stability to the London neighborhood and for a while, it seemed that things were returning to normal.

Even Admiral Shepard returned to her duties at the London Alliance Office.

Ellyon-Gate lost traction in the news when Garrus Vakarian was declared Primarch of Palaven, shortly followed by the news that Urdnot Grunt and his Aralakh Company had won an important battle against remnants of the rachni reaper army. In the days after, Admiral Vas Normandy quietly pulled the Kal'Reegar Brigade from London and the Prime mysteriously vanished too.

In the Council Ellyon-Gate was seen as the first successful test of post-war politics, which lead to Admiral Vas Normandy using the broadly and freely used Quarian insult Bosh'tet in a certain context on Diana Allers' newsshow. The subtlety was not lost on the Council and for a while the relations with the quarians were cordial at best. The quarians couldn't care less, stating that without the Kal'Reegar Brigade and Admiral Vas Normandy's leadership, Ellyon-Gate would still be unresolved.

Admiral Vas Normandy's liberal use of Bosh'tet even became an extranet meme as forum trolls were invariably countered with an animated picture of Admiral Vas Normandy looking directly in the camera delivering her famous insult. It led to humans and other non-quarian species wanting to join the Kal'Reegar Brigade for the chance to serve under the most foulmouthed Admiral in the galaxy. The quarians at first beheld the desire with bemusement but when it became clear that many wanted to become a Kal'Reegar Marine in earnest, the Admiralty Board issued a formal statement that only quarians could serve in the quarian military.

(Even years after the quarians returned to Rannoch, Admiral Vas Normandy remained the only quarian with an almost rockstar like status in the Sol-system. Her likeliness appearing on mugs, t-shirts, messengerbags, keychains and buttons. Talimancers, as her fans call themselves, scour the extranet for anything Admiral Vas Normandy and organize a yearly event called Bosh'tet-Con. The beloved admiral has yet to attend one.)

Just as the tabloids were about to publish a huge story about Admiral Vas Normandy being cued by her turian boyfriend Garrus Vakarian, the Primarch of Palaven, disaster struck.


	4. Back then it was just talk

Shinobu Shepard still had trouble believing that she was handpicked to serve as XO on the high tech Normandy. Captain David Anderson seemed to have taken a personal interest in her, something that was not lost on her peers who called her Anderson's pet behind her back.

Even her N7 instructors said that they were wiser than going against Captain Anderson's wishes, even if he wanted a runt to drive his command into the ground. Shinobu remembered it well. That small room with the single desk where she stood at attention for over an hour while three N7 instructors mercilessly dressed her down, trying hard to remain stone faced while tears were pricking in her eyes.

"I think that Anderson has a hard on for gooks. I think that Anderson wants little flat-chested asian cookies to do his bidding. Do you think that Anderson needs someone like you, Lieutenant Commander? Are you better than LC Pressley, Lieutenant?", the instructors brought his face within inches of Shinobu who fought the urge to step back, "Answer, Lieutenant, are you better than Lieutenant Pressley?"

"Sir, I graduated top of class, sir."

Another instructor, who had kept himself in the background during most of the dressing down stepped in close. Shinobu knew the man well, he was a class-room instructor but in viciousness a match for his colleagues.

"Top of class. Well, well. Maybe the Batarians will not shoot at you, Lieutenant. Maybe you can hold up your N7-certificate and they will surrender out of respect. You're only N7 because we failed, Lieutenant. You're only N7 because you weren't sensible enough to wash yourself out. We made you N7 because that was the only way for us to get rid of you, Lieutenant. You've treated the N7 program as something that you have to do, a speedbump on your way to glory. You gleefully believed that you had fooled us, didn't you Lieutenant? Did you honestly believe that we wouldn't see that little smile on your face as you slept, Lieutenant?"

Shinobu was visibly shocked by the instructor's words. All three of them were looking at her with their usual "talking to worthless maggots"-faces, but she knew her instructors picked up on the littlest twitch, the smallest shift in her weight and the most unperceived fidget. They would pick up on it and mercilessly work the angle that provoked the most instability in her posture. She realized that her instructors kept the one thing that would've gotten her to ring the bell to the very last moment, their last chance to teach her one last farewell lesson. Top of class graduate or not, to them she will never be a graduate. Because she knew her instructors meant it when they said that every graduate was them failing their jobs.

The N7 program was designed to separate the best candidates from the very best the Alliance had to offer. From the 40 people Shinobu's class had started with, only eight were left and only five ultimately graduated. Every day, her instructors would add a little more pressure, expect more and more and almost every day, the best N7 students were taken for a daily dressing down. To be selected for the N7 program alone was a badge of honor on any service record, even if the program was never finished. But to actually graduate N7, that was something else entirely.

"Lieutenant, did you honestly believe that we didn't know how you secretly polished your Star of Terra when you went to take a leak on the taxpayer's heads?"

"Sir, I-"

"Lieutenant! Where is your medal, Lieutenant? Where is your token of the highest honor the Alliance can bestow on its fighting men and women? Show it to us, Lieutenant. We want to see how shiny it is, we want to bask in your glory, Lieutenant. Reach in that hidden pocket you've sewn in your uniform, the uniform you destroyed, the uniform that was paid for with taxpayer's money? Any day now, Lieutenant."

Shinobu felt her face violently turning red, her cheeks hurt and her ears stung. Shinobu had earned the Star of Terra for her actions during the Skyllian Blitz, the very same actions that had secured her selection for the N7-program. It was as the instructors had said. She had been polishing her medal secretly while visiting the toilets, but she had done so to reassure herself that she belonged in N7. A little pride might have been a factor. The Star of Terra meant more to her than it being just a symbol of her pride. Maybe the secret pocket she added to her uniform to have her medal with her at all times was a bit childish, but the medal meant the world to her.

The medal had shown that she wasn't worthless, that she wasn't something her parents had to deal with until she was old enough to leave them behind. It had shown her that she wasn't dead weight in a ground team, only good to carry excess medigel. That she was more than a broken clock.

"Lieutenant, why didn't you report losing the highest honor the Alliance can bestow on a soldier?"

That was it. Shinobu started to cry. Tears streamed down her face and her shoulders rocked with every sob. Her instructors changed their demeanor and traded smiles. They had finally done it, they had finally broken through. For the longest time they had hurled everything they had at that stoic asian face, that face that had taken everything, had absorbed everything, time and time again.

She had graduated, had received her N7 certificate and had sewn the N7 badges on her uniform with trembling fingers and had become drunk like a quarian on shoreleave, but the instructors kept her on the base till the very last moment and they had one last ace to play before they had to send her off.

It had paid off brilliantly.

The class-room instructor took a box from the desk and turned his attention to Shinobu again, "Lieutenant, you're without a doubt the most infuriating but brilliant student we have ever had the displeasure to meet. We don't know who fucked you up, your parents, your teddybear, your first boyfriend or your first sexual experience. We don't care. You're N7. Lieutenant-Commander Shepard earned a medal, N7 Shepard is just some unproven fucktart with an assault rifle.

"Every person has a weakness, Lieutenant. Yours is your personal insecurity. We tried to help you, we did our best to give you confidence in yourself, but you are stubborn and wouldn't learn. Instead, you endured. We admire that, but even a weak person can endure adversity.

"Your medal, Lieutenant, is in this box. You can only display it now, not carry it on your person anymore. Give it a place and move on."

The instructor pressed the box with the medal in her hands and stepped back. Another instructor, the one who tried to press her racial button took this as a cue. He didn't step forward as had taken a position leaning against the desk.

"Lieutenant, we have been debating offering you a position here at N7. Captain Anderson crossed our plans. We could've exercised our right on first pick with you, Lieutenant. One word from us and Captain Anderson is looking for a new XO before his old one has even set one foot aboard that new fangled Council phallus.

"Until this moment we hesitated because we knew we weren't successful in teaching you an important lesson about yourself. As it is, you're not fit to become a N7 Instructor.

"We have no choice but to let Captain Anderson have his way. Learn from the captain, Lieutenant. Find a way to overcome that flaw, because it will come back to bite you.

"It has been an honor, Lieutenant. If anything, you've shown us that N7 isn't the hardest we can throw at our students. A few more students like you and we might need to start a N8 program.

"Now get out of here and be off the base at oh-one hundred. We don't provide room and board to vagrants wearing red and white stripes. We heard that some sci-fi roach-motel is taking in strays. Dismissed."

Shinobu, still sobbing and in tears, managed to pull off a passable salute that was more or less returned by the three instructors who had already started to go over the names of the next class. She concentrated on making a model exit but the third instructor, who had been observing the whole time, stopped her just as she reached the door.

"Lieutenant-Commander Shepard! For crying out loud, do you honestly think that you hold the rank to be an XO on the newest, most advanced warship in Council-space? Where in the world did you suddenly find the confidence and courage?"

Shinobu turned around, fighting her confusion. Her mind raced. The transfer was a done deal, the instructors had released her, she was told to be off base at oh one hundred... What was missing?

"Sir, I don't understand-"

The instructor facepalmed and sighed theatrically while making a stop-talking gesture with his free hand, "As if sewing hidden pockets in your uniform isn't insulting enough, you also insist on being out of uniform, _Commander_. I'm grateful that you're not our problem anymore.

"Are you planning on discrediting the N7-program in the eyes of Captain Anderson, Commander?"

"N-no, sir!"

The instructor flung a little box, which Shinobu struggled to catch. A display that earned her scoffing sighs from the three instructors. But at the moment she recovered, the instructors suddenly became formal again.

"Commander Shepard, departing!"

They gave a her a perfect salute. Shinobu collected herself and returned what she hoped was the best salute in her career. She turned around and left the instructor's office for the last time. Whatever she might have thought of that exit, just as the door closed behind her, she heard the three instructors explode in roaring laughter.

And now Shinobu was standing at the gangboard to the SR1 Normandy. She had shown up a little too early, so she was lingering a bit to appear to have arrived in a timely fashion without coming across as too eager to take her post. The guard at the gangboard was becoming a bit uncertain at the sight of the N7 just standing there, so he gambled a salute.

"Sir, can I offer assistance?"

"At ease, Marine.", Shinobu ordered after returning the salute, "Inform the officer of the watch that Commander Shepard requests permission to come aboard."

Pressley's face darkened as got the notification from the guard. _'Oh great, Anderson's N7 action figure has arrived.'_ Even though Pressley had access to the parts of Shepard's service record that weren't classified and respected her past service, it had stung him deeply that he was passed for an N7 upstart. He had lingered on Shepard's picture, looking for something in that inscrutable face, so asian it was almost alien to him, that he could hate, that he could blame for blocking his career, but he couldn't find anything. It was a recent picture in her profile, the commander was wearing a new uniform with N7 designation and on her lips was the littlest of smiles. Highly unprofessional, Pressley tried to convince himself, smiling like that on a service-record picture.

But dammit, she must just have graduated in that picture. The N7 instructors weren't fools, they had a reason to use this picture to forward with her service-record. But he had no access to the N7 evaluations, so that service-record picture would forever be a mystery to him. Maybe her actions would explain that picture, maybe not.

Pressley was sure of one thing only. This N7, this Commander Shinobu Helloise Shepard, she would block his career for years to come. Maybe he should apply for transfer.

"Tell the Commander I meet her at the airlock, corporal.", Pressley grumbled and he set towards the cockpit where the airlock was situated. Arriving at the airlock he got his first surprise of many to come. Shinobu respectfully saluted him first. It was a gesture not lost on Pressley. It was not one of those general salutes superior officers make, this salute was pointedly directed at him.

"Permission to come aboard." the small framed commander stated. The omission of his rank was also not lost on Pressley. In less than a second, his commander had told him that she respected his position, but that she was his superior officer and in charge. Pressley had to push back, show that little girl with the barely grown woman features that he was someone aboard the Normandy too.

"Permission granted, _Commander_. Welcome aboard."

The commander clapsed her hands behind her back in a manner that the crew would come to see as an iconic gesture. "Point taken, LC. Please show me to the captain's quarters, I would like to report for duty before the captain believes I went AWOL before showing up."

The two officers didn't exchange a word as Pressley escorted Shinobu to Anderson's quarters. His face grew darker when he realised that the commander knew perfectly well how to navigate the Normandy. She didn't need directions at all, she was merely showing the deck-crew that he was following her and that she was in control.

A little before Anderson's door, she turned to Pressley, "Thank you LC, I can take it from here. Dismissed." Pressley grinded his teeth, forced a "Yes ma'am" and left her. Shinobu didn't call him back for a salute and Pressley knew why. The commander had bitten his head off, had neutralized him effortlessly. Anderson's pet had bested him. Bitch! He hated her.

Conquering Pressley had been altogether too easy. Shinobu tried not to smile over it. Pressley would come around once the Normandy would have been in a situation or two. She was just an unknown to him. For now, the markers were set and it was up to her to earn his respect beyond that.

Shinobu quickly removed some imaginary specks from her uniform and straightened herself before knocking on Anderson's cabin-door. Pressley had been easy, but the man behind that door had her future in his hands, hell, he was already altering it. The hero of Shanxi was behind that door. The most decorated officer alive, a man who had to take out a safe-deposit box to store his medals in.

"Enter." it sounded from behind the door. It sounded angry too, as if she had interrupted him in something important. _Great, he is loaded for bear._ With that in mind, Shinobu flowed into the cabin, jumped at attention and sounded off.

"Spare me the textbook, Shepard. I will not have a N7 disrespect me in my own quarters.", Anderson reacted. Anderson turned to a turian leaning against the hullside wall, where Shinobu hadn't noticed him. She was so focused on making a textbook entry that she had not factored in the possibility that her CO might not have been alone.

She imaginary shook her head. _Strike two._

"This gentleman is a Council Spectre, name of Nihlus. You respect him, but you don't salute him." Shinobu acknowledged Nihlus with a nod and curt 'Sir'. The turian's faceplates twitched as he nodded but remained otherwise silent.

"Nihlus is here strictly as an observer on the Normandy's last shake down cruise. Commander, the Normandy is at the front of the bleeding edge. She is destined for great things and so is her crew. I moved mountains to have you assigned as my XO, against great resistance from the N7 administrators. It was decided that the choice would be yours. I'm honored that you choose to join my crew."

Shinobu let that sink in for a moment. _Oh my god! The instructors! They were waiting for me to tell them I wanted to join their ranks instead of blindly following a predestined path! They wanted me to think for myself and I didn't. They gave it everything they got in that final meeting. They had me on the ground, crying my eyes out when I understood but I still couldn't stand up for myself and tell them what I wanted._

Shinobu tried to get her head around that revelation but Anderson moved on, "Good. Commander, do you want children?"

Now Shinobu was completely disarmed. Why was Anderson making a show of her infront of a turian? Her mind reeled and her vision blurred. Pressed for an answer she blurted, "I'm a lesbian, sir."

Without missing a beat, Anderson continued, "That is fine, Commander, I prefer women too. Please concentrate and answer my question."

Nihlus rose a hand to enter the conversation, "If I may, Commander, what is a lesbian?"

Shinobu quickly searched for a way to explain the concept tastefully, "It means I prefer women for comfort, sir." _Strike three, I'm sure. I'm done and Anderson will jettison me first chance he gets._

It wasn't even a total lie. Shinobu preferred women, but never actually had sexual relations with one. The closest she had gotten was fantasizing while browsing a lingerie catalog she still carried around in her personal belongings.

Nihlus just said "Aah", as he understood and Anderson asked his question again.

"I haven't given it much thought, sir. I like children but giving birth myself...", Shinobu paused and decided to press the matter. N7, dammit!, "If I'm allowed to ask, sir, why the question?"

"I merely want to find out if my XO has a good chance of showing up 3 months pregnant on a 6 month cruise, Commander."

Shinobu sensed she was in calmer water and clapsed her hands behind her back, "There's little chance that will happen today, sir. Artificial means for getting pregnant don't seem appealing to me."

Anderson gave it some thought, "Fair enough, Commander, we'll talk more. Tell Mr Moreau to take the Normandy aweigh. Destination Eden Prime. Then get settled in. Dismissed, Commander." Nihlus rose a hand again and stepped in front of Shinobu.

"Out of curiosity, Commander. If you were to have a child, what gender would it be and what name would you give it?" This was by far the weirdest talk Shinobu had ever had with a superior officer and an alien. She couldn't figure out what their angle was, what they were looking for and most importantly, what they wanted to hear from her.

But this was a question Shinobu had answered many times in the past, as this was one of those questions young people ask each other a lot. "A daughter, sir. She would be called Ellyon."


	5. A love like pain

The return trip to Earth was torture for Liara T'Soni. Shortly after Joker had landed the Normandy on that strange garden planet after escaping the wave of destruction Shinobu Shepard had unleashed on the galaxy, they had gotten the message that they were all dreading to hear.

Admiral Hackett appeared in the holo-field and had surveyed the group of people trying to get a look on him. Joker, Traynor, Vakarian, Javik, Vega, Cortez, Williams, Vas Normandy and herself tried to fit in the small comms room all together. Hackett appeared ragged and tired, but the group looking back at him wasn't much better off. Liara found herself strangely aware of Ashley Williams in that room.

Liara tried to ignore it but a fleeting memory flashed by. Shinobu sitting in her office-chair, tinkering with a ship's model, parts of plastic on her desk, a bottle of glue and a blueprint to put the model together. And a glass of water. No alcohol, it was water. Shinobu only drank alcohol when other people drank it. In private, Liara had never seen her reach for a bottle.

"Can I ask you something?"

Shinobu didn't react, she was trying to fit two pieces together without much success. She muttered something that sounded like bosh'tet. Vas Normandy's influence, no doubt.

"Shino, can I ask you something?"

"I love you too, Liara.", Shinobu offered without looking up from her model, "Heck, you made me a xenosexual lesbian. I my defense, I'm already a lesbian. It's a logical step.", en then, triumphantly showing the half-finished model to Liara, "Look! It fits, just like us!"

"No, I just wanted to know how to feed your fish..."

At first, that unreadable face staring at her and then that wonderful laugh, that beautiful waterfall of sound... Shinobu, her bondmate. High on life one moment, crying in her pillow the next. Hot and bothered searching for Liara's body warmth one moment, cold and distant the next. Singing into brooding, brooding into pacing, pacing into a sigh and singing again.

_Goddess! Shino, where are you?_

Hackett composed himself and diverted his sights to a spot above their heads. Logical, Liara reckoned, it is impossible for him to look at all of us at once.

"Initial reports indicate that both Admiral Anderson and Commander Shepard made it to the Citadel. In her last communication with me, Shepard sounded absent, having trouble to concentrate. She did relay that Admiral Anderson had fallen and that she wasn't sure how to proceed from there. The Commander appeared to be in severe pain but I ordered her to find a way to fire the crucible. She has succeeded, but since then we have had no word from the Commander."

Joker, Vega, Javik and Liara just stood there, frozen like statues, each in their memories of Shinobu Shepard. Cortez mumbled something like "Mui Corazon" which translated to Liara as 'my heart', but the way he said it, it sounded like it meant much more to him. Vas Normandy punched her right fist in her left stretched out hand and let go of a terrible quarian curse that Liara's translator couldn't even make heads nor tails off. That was probably for the best. Goddess, that space-hippie had a mouth on her.

Ashley Williams turned all officer and informed, "Sir, did we find the Commander's body?"

Vas Normandy would have jumped out of her hard suit if she would have had the room to do it, "You bosh'tet! Alliance cheerleader! Shepard's alive! And who put you in charge anyway, princess?"

Williams shot the smoldering quarian an angry look, "As Lieutenant-Commander and a Council Spectre, I'm in command."

"Hah! Undina only made you a Spectre because he could play you like a piano, whatever a piano is. And guess what, princess, I'm an admiral. An admiral in the joined forces for the final battle. I outrank you. So be a good little cheerleader, shut up and go do your make up or something.", Vas Normandy's vocalizer had never sounded so drippingly venomous as it had then. She turned to Hackett, "With your permission, Admiral Hackett, as an admiral in Allied Forces and the quarian heavy fleet, I assume command of the Normandy."

Williams opened her mouth to protest, but Hackett cut her off.

"Admiral Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy is in command. Admiral, return ship and crew to the Sol-system at earliest opportunity. We will keep searching for the Commander. Hackett out."

Williams was the first to leave the room. She virtually disappeared and Vas Normandy was not inclined to have her brought to the CIC later on. Others followed soon after, muttering words of support as they passed Liara.

Only Vas Normandy lingered.

"I won't take Shino's cabin. I'm fine in the sleeping-pods."

Liara shook her head, "I'm sorry? Oh, I'm sure she wouldn't mind, as long as you leave her shipmodels alone and don't change the music."

Vas Normandy chuckled, "That's Shino for you. That leaves feeding the fish."

"The only thing she always forgets.", Liara spoke softly.

"And then being sad as her fish died, yet buying new ones with every visit to the Citadel. Humans."

Asari and quarian stood there for a while longer, each lost in their own thoughts. Vas Normandy left first, barking orders in the shipewide commsystem. Soon after, the Normandy came to life again. The ship shuddered as the Tantalus drivecore came on line.

Back to Council-space. _Goddess! It'll take months! Maybe years!_

Not a day later Vas Normandy burst into Liara's cabin. "Liara! They found her, she's alive! The bosh'tet asari muncher is alive!" Liara didn't right away understand the extend of Vas Normandy's agitated shouting. She had buried herself in her Shadow Broker persona and there was much to do.

"Oh, hello Tali. I have had contact with the heavy fleet. A new marine brigade has been formed, the Kal'Reegar Brigade. You're to assume command of the brigade when we link up."

"What are you talking about, bosh- airbrain! Shepard is found, alive! Hackett is waiting for you in the comm. Go!", with that, Vas Normandy bounded out of Liara's cabin, "Joker! Play the Commander's favorite song shipwide! That beast survived. Keelah'Salai!

As Liara hurried to the comms, the shipwide intercom started blaring Commander Shepard's favorite song. Liara only knew the song was called "Bad Choices". Human music didn't do much for her, but now it struck a nerve. Shinobu had tried to explain Liara many times how humans experienced music, but had given up saying it was like explaining color to a blind person. _I understand now._

Hackett was still online, but he was interacting with people only he could see, while buttoning his dress-blues. He didn't notice Liara entering at first, but then he touched a button to open audio. He startled and quickly fiddled with some setting.

"Dr. T'Soni, what is that racket?"

"Admiral Vas Normandy ordered Joker to play Shino's favorite song shipwide, Admiral", Liara yelled and then she grabbed the guardrail as the internal dampeners suddenly worked at full capacity, "And I think Joker just did a looping..!"

"My... is that quarian insane? What did you call them, Dr. T'Soni? Space-hippies? It doesn't matter. We have found Commander Shepard. On earth, would you believe. A team of krogan scouts found her. The asari have offered to take the Commander to the med-bay of the Destiny Ascension. Early diagnosis is massive trauma and somehow, the Commander's hardsuit kept pumping medigel in her. It's what saved the Commander's life."

"Thank the Goddess for small graces", Liara murmered. The loud music made it impossible for Hackett to make out what she had said, but he took cues from her expression.

"I can't overstate how much this means for the Alliance and the allied forces, Dr T'Soni. The medical staff of the Ascension believe that the Commander will, in time, make a full recovery. I'm on-"

"YOU HEAR THAT, BOSH'TET ALLIANCE CHEERLEADER?! SHEPARD SURVIVED! SO HELP YOURSELF TO AN AIRLOCK, BIIIIIITCH! KEELAH'SALAI! JOKER! MORE MUSIC!"

Hackett's face turned dark, but Liara couldn't help smiling, "Forgive the Admiral, Admiral. She's a good and loyal friend. Soon she will hit the turian brandy and five minutes later Vega and I will carry her to a sleeping-pod. The Admiral will get us home."

"I'll take your word for it, Dr. T'Soni. As I was saying, I'm on my way to the Destiny Ascension now. I will make sure that any information will find your way through your Shadow Broker network."

"Admiral, I have a favor to ask.., will you kiss Shino for me and tell her that I love her? And when she's reunited with me, will you please let me have my bondmate for myself alone?"

"I'll do my best. Hackett out."

It still took the Normandy over a year to return to the Sol-system. But in that time, Liara had many vidcalls with Shinobu, Vas Normandy and Williams came to see eye to eye and the med-bay on the Destiny Ascension was mysteriously supplied by a person who always seemed to know what stock the med-bay needed. Medical Staff also several times reported a shimmering in the halls and unauthorized snacks appearing in Shepard's room.

Shepard fully recovered, was promoted to Admiral (which prompted Vas Normandy to call for another shipwide party) and was paraded allover the combined fleet and Earth. Shepard made a lot of speeches she invariably ended with 'Come home, Liara, I miss you.'

And each time, Liara would cry.

Shepard-mania calmed down when Shepard took up her deskjob at the London Alliance Office and disappeared from the public eye. By the time Liara held her bondmate in her arms for real, in the middle of the London Spaceport, no one seemed to notice that two key players in the war against the reapers where standing there, locked in an embrace that transcended time, space and love.

The only thing that raised a few eyebrows was the crazy quarian who was trying to get a piece of the human too. But quarians are weird. Space-hippies.

In the following years, the Normandy crew scattered to the winds, and the Allied Forces slowly returned to their home-systems as Mass-Relays one by one got repaired.

Joker returned to Tiptree, to make peace with the loss of his father and sister. He buried an empty coffin next to them for Edi. Honoring his service to the Alliance, Hackett made him an Alliance Envoy to Tiptree, so he could stay there and rebuild the family farm.

Totally not machinated, Karin Chackwas opened an Alliance Medical Clinic on Tiptree not much later.

Williams resigned her Spectre Status, turned in her stripes and returned to Brazil, where she became a recluse in the Amazone. She published several poetry bundles the Elcor embraced. It was breathtaking to hear an elcor recite Williams' poetry and probably more so when you was an elcor yourself. On Dakuuna, Williams came to be revered as a warrior-poet with a tormented soul.

Totally out of nowhere, Vega and Cortez married. No one saw that coming.

Traynor returned to duty in an Alliance lab on Luna, but made the news when she became a grand master in Chess and won several important tournaments.

Vas Normandy and Vakarian somehow made a long distance relationship work. The relationship between the soft-spoken and demure Primarch of Palaven and the high profile and high maintenance Admiral and CO of the Kal'Reegar Brigade continued to be a source of tabloid material, but the turian hierarchy was the first to broker an alliance with the excitable space-hippies.

Citadel politics became a lot more lively when the quarians were awarded an embassy...

But way before all that, Liara got pregnant and all hell broke loose.


	6. Rain, rain and more rain

There were other women in the locker room. You would think that the place would be more lively, but Shinobu reckoned the women had gotten the "brass incoming" warning well ahead of time. As Shinobu made her way to her locker, she recognized most of them as administrative personnel. None of them carried themselves in a manner that gave away frequent 50 mile marches in full armor.

They were probably going for an hour of cardio or something in the indoor facilities. Trying to stay in shape to avoid failing the required fitness test the Alliance loved to spring on their non-combat personnel.

Staying in shape was not hard for Shinobu. Cerberus implants helped tremendously, but running around in her armor and having a go at the obstacle course was just something she did. Something she needed to do. She would die for Liara, stand by her eternal, but god – was she hard to live with.

Had she been alone in the locker room right now, Shinobu would have rammed her fist into her locker's door. _To hell with it. Bosh'tet, blue-faced, tentacle monster!_

The admiral's sudden outburst and the crashing sound of her fist connecting with her locker in such a force the locker-door actually came of it's hinges shocked everybody in the room. It was dead silent as the women looked in horror at the seething admiral. It was almost surreal as the locker-door in some crazy kind of slow motion fell over.

Then it crashed on the floor with way more noise than needed and the moment was gone. Shinobu realized that she wasn't alone in the room, "Oh my. I said it out loud, didn't I?"

"You... shouted it, sir.", said a young woman who closest to her. Shinobu spotted a little tattoo on the woman's shoulder. "Reaper Busters". The 'busters had brought down a reaper destroyer using the lasergun technique Shinobu had first used on Rannoch. _God, how old could she be? 18?_

"What's your age, rifleman?"

The young woman started, but then her training kicked in. She jumped to attention and sounded off a crisp, "Sir, the Private 1st Class Shaunessy is 17, sir!".., her towel slid to the floor. To the private's credit, she remained perfectly at attention.

"17 and you have a tattoo belonging to a select group of heroes, private?"

"Sir, the private disinformed the recruitment officer about her age. The private was on the ground when we brought that motherfucker down, sir. Sorry sir!"

_Off course they allowed her to stay after her lie was found out. No one discharges a reaper buster, a goddam fucking hero. They parked her at LAO and when she turns 18, they'll find a place for her._

"Are you telling me you were 16 at the time, private?"

"Sir, and a day, sir!"

Shinobu staggered and quickly sat down, "I'm going to be a mother soon."

"S-sir?"

"Never mind, private.", Shinobu rose from the bench and awarded the private with a honor-salute, "Who'se like us, private?"

"Sir! Damn few and they're dead, sir!", Shaunessy returned while giving a model salute.

"Well, Ooyah! Carry on, private and pick up your, uhm, uniform. You're a disgrace."

Some time later, Shinobu entered the course-grounds wearing full N7 armor. It rained lightly, but the sky was grey as lead. It would be pouring soon. Cats and dogs. Shinobu brought her face up, enjoying the rain as it landed on her face.

_Sixteen and a day._

Shinobu was born in space to parents who both served in the armed Alliance forces. Her father had passed on some time ago, but her mother still served and was recently awarded her own command. They didn't talk much and when they did it was troublesome. It didn't rain in space, people made their own rain and it would never stop. Earth rain was good rain. Honest rain. It wasn't angry rain that followed you everywhere. Earth rain brought life and washed away sins. Earth rain was god's way of saying, "It's all right, I've got your back."

_Sixteen and a day._

Shinobu started running. With little regard for destination, just running. Running became fleeing, ever faster. Just as back then on Mindoir. Running away from everything and the first time she had experienced rain. On Mindoir that first time, she was sixteen too. Rebelling against her parents, her awful life where no one understood her. Private Shaunnessy killed a reaper for her 16th birthday.

_Sixteen and a day. Would she still sleep with her teddy-bear in her arms? _

_I can't go on like this!_

Shinobu just let herself fall in full flight. It knocked the air out of her body with a painful 'oomph' and because of her momentum, she slid a distance on the wet grass till her body came to rest. The first moments were spent trying to catch her breath. She panicked, I'm not breathing! I'm not breathing! In a moment of clarity, she rolled on her back and breathing became easier. Shinobu calmed down and just laid there in the grass, thankful for the downpour what camouflaged the tears running down her cheeks. No one could see that she was crying her eyes out now. Not that anyone was there to see it.

After a while, Shinobu pushed a few buttons on her omni-tool and seemed to wait for it to be done whatever she had instructed it to do. Liara's face appeared on a little holo-screen.

"What?"

"I'm sorry for this morning."

Liara scowled, "That's it? You're sorry? You don't even try anymore.", the connection severed.

_She didn't just do that! She wouldn't! Two can play that game, you bosh'tet, blue-faced tentacle monster. I'm just gonna keep laying here and I'll die and then you'll be sorry and call me back._

_...Eventually._

_Shit._

Shinobu fiddled with her omni-tool again. But this time, Jack's face, the face belonging to the most outspoken and abrasive teacher in the Ascension program, appeared.

"Shepard? I'm in a meet-"

"Curse me out Jack. Give it everything you've got. Dress me down good, kick me in the gut and leave me to rot."

The holo-image of Jack quickly shot embarrassed glances around, she wasn't alone. But Shinobu was oblivious of that. She was blinking in the rain that still fell down on her face and wasn't actively looking at Jack's holo.

"Come on, Jack. Not even something like 'alien carpet muncher'?"

"Shepard! I don't... Look, whatever your malfunction of the day might be, deal with it, ffff- schoolgirl!", the connection severed.

_Two for two, I'm on a roll. I wonder if... No, not Williams. I don't want to get even sadder. What did Jack say? Schoolgirl? Sixteen and a day. Malfunction of the day. Good one. Schoolgirl._

_Shit, shit, shit._

Shinobu once more worked the buttons on her omni-tool and Liara's face appeared again.

"What now?"

"Liara, promise me something..."

"Promise you what? That I don't flail you with my mind when you come home?"

"No, promise me Ellyon doesn't join the army, any army. No asari commando crap, no explosions and running around the galaxy from one fight to the next. I need to know that she won't become you or me. That's she'll become a librarian or something. Animal shelter volunteer. Whatever. Promise me that Ellyon will have a life of peace, even when I'm gone and you're the only mother looking after her. I need to know that you'll make sure she'll grow to be a 1000 years old without so much as breaking a nail. I need to be sure that she'll become the most uninteresting Matriarch ever. Please!"

"And what if our daughter, this Ellyon you're talking about, becomes a dancer in Chora's Den?"

"I'll watch her dance till I die. Because if Ellyon decides to shake ass in a seedy bar, it's still infinitely better than this. Sixteen and a day, Liara, sixteen and a day."

"What are you talking about, Shino? What's going on?"

"Liara, please! I need to know!"

Liara's face softened, "I'll make sure that our daughter will always be safe, even if I have to bankrupt my shadow broker business to do it. I still have at least 900 years in me. She'll never get rid of me, I promise."

_Yesssss!_

"I'll be home soon, tentacle monster."

Liara chuckled, "So, Ellyon huh?"


	7. Bundle of dispair

_How did that happen? We talked just minutes ago! We were laughing and talking and it was like old times...Not Liara, not Ellyon... They're everything I've got. It's a joke to get back at me, they'll be there at the hospital entrance and laugh because they played a prank on me. Please let it be a prank, I'll be the better person and go like "Good one guys! You got me there!" We'll laugh and go for drinks and everything will be all right and then Liara and I will fall asleep in each other's arms and everything will be all right._

The staffcar swerved through the airborne traffic like that traffic didn't exist. But what was a staffcar to Steve Cortez? The MP that had collected Shinobu, still in full N7 armor, shot worried looks at the admiral. Tears streaming down her face, rocking back and forth, eyes that saw nothing and mumbling like an idiot.

"LT, can't you go faster? If the admiral starts trashing around we have big problems, that N7 armor is combat augmented!"

"Sergeant, if the admiral starts trashing around, you're authorized to pacify her command."

"Sir! I can't obey that order! Admiral Shepard is the hero of the reaper war!"

"Then I hope you brought a parachute, sergeant. Just keep a close eye on the admiral and let me take care of getting to the hospi-"

The radio crackled to life, "Shep1, shep1, this is AMH-emergency, do you read, copy?"

_This is bad, priority callsign, _Cortez thought, "AMH-emergency, this is Shep1, Lieutenant Cortez speaking for Admiral Shepard, go ahead."

"Shep1, asari surgical team is standing by, they need to act now, over."

"AMH-emergency, where is Dr Chackwas, over?"

_It will be all right, it's a prank, Liara is fine, Ellyon is fine, we are fine. We'll laugh and we'll dance and we'll sleep in each other's arms and it will be all right. Act now act now act now..._

"Cortez, tell them to save my wife's and daughter's life if they don't want their biotic glands ripped from their azure bodies! And step on it, mister!"

"Uhhh, shep1, copy! Out!"

Cortez smiled despite it all, "Welcome back, sir. Eta 5 minutes."

"I better shut off this combat augmenter, right sergeant? We don't me trashing around.", Shinobu smirked while she worked a few buttons on her omni-tool to set her exoskeleton to passive, "Come on Cortez, pretend you're Joker and do some serious flying, my wife needs me."

Cortez mashed the accelerator and the staffcar lunged forward. Lines blurred, but Cortez kept master control over the lithe craft. A memory flashed before Shinobu's mind's eye.

It was on Illium, Shinobu drove, Liara in the passenger seat, in pursuit of a corrupt asari Spectre. They pursued with reckless abandon and Liara was scared witless.

TRUCK! TRUCK!

Shinobu laughed like a maniac. The sergeant was terrified. A lieutenant flying at breakneck speeds being ordered to pretend he's a joker and now she's laughing like mad? He just hoped he would walk away from all this with his life...

Shinobu thought she had collected herself in the staffcar, at least enough to calmly walk into the hospital, listen politely to some doctor explaining Liara's condition and that of their unborn daughter. That she would ask relevant questions in a precise military manner and then she would politely request to see her wife. Dignified, admiral like.

Yeah.

Shinobu bolted as soon the staffcar had touched down. She grabbed the first medical looking asari by the neck and screamed, "Where's my wife, tentacleface?" The asari was mortified and could only stammer incoherently. Shinobu shook her violently, "Answer me, you azure freak! Where's my wife?"

Cortez, who finally had caught up with Shinobu, punched her in the backplate of her armor, "Let her go, admiral, she's just a doughnut-doll, please, let her go. Come on. Easy does it."

Even an exoskeleton set on passive still augmented and Shinobu's understanding of easy equaled forcefully throw aside right now. It didn't register with her that she had thrown the hapless asari a few feet away as she bounded down the nearest corridor.

Cortez was out of options. The MP would hesitate, he himself carried no weapons... There, unmistakenly an asari commando. Probably visiting a friend, maybe here for a check up. It didn't matter, "Commando! Chase down that N7 and pacify her command!"

The commando threw a quick salute and started after Shinobu, her biotic field springing up as she gave chase. Cortez kneeled down beside the poor asari doughnut-doll. Poor girl. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was relieved when the girl sat up under her own power, "Whoa, whoa, slow down there. You have survived a run in with a juggernaut. You better take it easy."

Further down the hall, a panic broke out. The tell-tale sounds of a struggle between two formidable opposing forces were deafening and then the flare of a biotic discharge. It was suddenly eerily quiet.

On Cortez' omnitool, the general military channel crackled into life and the asari commando reported in. The commando's voice was strained and exhausted but she managed, "Mission accomplished. Request medical assistance for both of us. Ungh."

It took a while for Shinobu to come to. She started to get up but a familiar voice caused her to give up immedeately, "Stay down on the gurney, commander."

"Karin! Liara! Where's Liara?"

Dr Chackwas, addressed as Karin, couldn't hide a smile. In three long years Shinobu had stuck to Dr. Chackwas. But today she was Karin. She could live with that. _Maybe I should have told her the truth right from the start and then she would never have fallen for T'Soni... The lies we tell to the ones we __love..._

Unlike Chackwas, Shinobu had never made a secret out of her sexual orientation. The stigma of it was gone long before Shinobu or Chackwas were even born. Homosexuality was as accepted as dirty pictures on the extranet. Only the xenopheliac monthly magazine Fornax tried to mystify the preference. The early "human on human same sex action" pictures that appeared in Fornax shortly after first contact with the turians were legendary because of how off base they were.

Chackwas had always held her preferences close to the vest. She felt it to be personal and if it started to hurt too much, there was always booze. And the satisfaction in the knowledge that she was the only one who could still call Shinobu commander. And live to tell about it.

Shinobu tried to sit up again and this time she managed. The armor pieces were gone from her hardsuit, she noticed. It was probably for the best, "Liara, Dr. Chackwas, how is she?"

_Chackwas again... But for one glorious, heavenly moment I was Karin..._

"Liara is resting now, commander. The baby was delivered surgically, there was no way Liara could have carried it to full term."

"It's because of what I did this morning, isn't it? It's my fault. All of it is my fault. But I love her so much it just becomes too much to bear and then I just have to let her know somehow. I stop thinking, Karin, I stop using my brain and all that matters is my stupid lesbian hard on for Liara. I force myself on her and I keep going, going, going...", Shinobu forced her eyes shut but she couldn't hold back the tears, "And I keep going till I'm done. She wanted me to stop, Karin, but I kept going. I caused this, didn't I?"

"Commander, unless you believe you that your bumping and grinding Liara's behind and pulling her scalpplates causes natural abortion, what you could have done to her wouldn't be much worse than having trouble cleaning the awkward spots where you transferred your body-fluids to. And you can't force yourself on someone who consents. Everytime, I might add. I had Liara on the link after you left for LAO, commander, she wanted you to go easy but you were too far, uhm, gone. She was uncomfortable and felt a little woozy, but that's nothing to worry about. A hearty breakfast and lots of dayrest takes care of that. No one could have foreseen this, or prevented this from happening.

"I'm only telling you this because you're beating yourself up over something that only exists in your head commander."

"So, just like that, from one moment to the next, Liara just stops being pregnant? What happened, Karin?"

"According to the asari doctors, the genophage happened."

"Dr. Chackwas! This is not the time or the-"

"Shut it, commander. You're in my care so your rank means nothing. You don't get to tell me off, you get to listen. Are we clear, commander?"

_Look at her, not even 30 and an admiral. A kid playing war and unable to adapt to a normal life. So deeply flawed her strenghts are the only handle she has on reality._

"Commander, the pairing between Liara's parents only led to a succesful term because Matriarch Benezia was the mother. But there's quite a lot of krogan in Liara. The doctors are amazed she was able to become pregnant at all."

"And our baby... Ellyon, is she..."

"The doctors are fighting for her, commander, and Ellyon is fighting too. However there is news that sounds troubling."

Shinobu sighed and steeled herself, "Let me have it, Dr. Chackwas."

"Well, she doesn't have biotic activity to start. That means that everything asari is basically not there, apart from a long 1000 year lifespan. She will be shorter than you, if you excuse me, and she'll probably not physically mature beyond early puberty. She also has weird eyes, according to the asari doctors, but I explained that the father is of asian descend and that slanted eyes are perfectly normal.

"Ellyon is a little fighter, commander. There's a little krogan and human fire burning in her and if you ask my personal opinion, she's here to stay.

"At any rate, we'll know for sure later this evening."

Shinobu slid from the gurney and made to the door, "I'm going to see my wife. Don't stop me, unless you're prepared to lose my friendship, Dr Chackwas."

"I can do better, commander, I'll walk you there. Come on."

Shinobu thought she was prepared to face Liara's bed. But you never are really prepared for a very sick and hurt person who is hooked up on tubes and computers that are making weird noises. Shinobu's heart sank and she just stood there, in the door frame.

"Go on, commander, you can't talk to her all the way from here.", Chackwas said while pushing Shinobu further into the room. Then she closed the door quickly behind Shinobu.

Shinobu had no idea about what was happening on the other side of the door when Chackwas had closed it behind her. She didn't care too. Right now, the distance between the door and Liara's bed was like a chasm of gargantuan proportions and it seemed like it took forever to bridge it.

But she managed and now she was looking at the love of her life, beaten down by a salarian decision made centuries ago.

_Liara! Nononononono, not like this, I'm taking you home, I'll take care of you, make you better. We'll talk and we'll laugh and we'll buy all kinds of babystuff on the extranet until we're broke and then we'll fall asleep in each other's arms. I'll even cook traditional asari-food for you and I will eat it too. I can do that. It's only weird looking food. Come on, remove those tubes and cables and get up, we're go-_

"Stop that train of thought right there, blabbermouth,", Liara spoke with little voice, ".., but I can recommend some good entry level asari cookbooks."

"You know that we'll just end up ordering out from the asari take-away, right? I really wish I could stop thinking out loud.", Shinobu moved a chair next to the bed and sat down. She took Liara's hand and held it to her face.

"You know, you also talk like that in your sleep...", Liara paused and focused her eyes on Shinobu, "Our daughter, Ellyon.., I-is-"

"Yes, they're fighting for her, Liara, Ellyon will pull through, we must believe that for her. For us. We're mothers now. Do you know how to change diapers?"

"In theory, there are some very informative manuals, but strangely, they're all quarian... We'll manage."

"Auntie Tali..."

"I suspect as much too. 'The little bosh'tet' gives it away, I think."

Shinobu took a deep breath. If she wanted to say it, this was the time. Now or never, "Liara, I'm sorry. For this morning and all other times. I'm so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you, it's just... I love you so hard it hurts and I want you to know it and... I lose myself in you like some sort of animal."

Liara stared at the ceiling, while Shinobu didn't even dare look Liara in the face. Liara turned her head to the weird alien sitting at the side of her bed, "If I truly wanted you stop, I would hit you with a biotic slam so hard your teeth disintegrate. I love my kink as much as you do. You know how many times you said my name this morning when you did what you were doing?"

"Liara..."

"45 times. Shino, I can't do that embrace eternity stuff every night, it would kill me. I'll be around for hundreds of years after you're gone, it's just not possible to do that. But I won't deny you your human version of it. Maybe, you know, sometimes, wait till I'm awake too, or not asleep yet. I don't want to miss a thing, my bondmate."

"I need another you, so I could love you more..."

There was a quick knock on the glass shield that separated Liara's room from the corridor. A nurse had manouvred a neonatal unit before it. In it was little blue baby resting, as it seemed, comfortably.

Liara's eyes filled with tears, "I took care of that for you..."


	8. One eyebrow to rule them all

When Ellyon woke up, the sun was already rising and early sunlight was shining into her room. She noticed she was still fully clothed and realised that she had fallen asleep on the bedcover.

_Duh.., cried myself to sleep. Again. Bet mums are sleeping outside my door. Again._

Absently, Ellyon touched her left cheeck. It was a bit ginger to the touch. She couldn't believe what had happened yesterday. Mum had struck her. Ellyon giggled. It was about time mum reacted the way she did. Heatbutting teachers, extorting other girls out of their lunchcredits, even setting fire to the principal's office... Nothing had helped before.

Faking to be a prodigal biotic was awesome! Ellyon couldn't even do a little biotic spark, but threatening to level an entire educational complex with your mind worked wonders. Life outside of home was good. Life at home? Not so much.

Ellyon lived in a gilded cage. Her every want or whim was met. A closet full of the latest teenage girl fashion she never even wore. Stuffed animals, snowglobes, omni-tool girly games, the latest Girls Only omni-tool with a secret diary and hints&tips on how to get the boyfriend of your dreams (It glowed pink and Ellyon loved it.).., What Ellyon looked at, Ellyon got.

And what Ellyon didn't look at, aunt Tali and uncle Garrus brought in on their sparse visits. Like a plush quarian who shouted Bosh'tet! when you squeezed it.

Apart from that Girls Only omni-tool, which she got, and Aria T'loak facepaint (denied), none of the stuff in her room she had really wanted. She had just been trying to find out where her mums' limit would lie. Blue mum just pulled her credit-chit. Yellow mum would try to reason, but eventually she would pull her credit-chit out too. Her own My First Credit-Chit had more credits on it than any other parent would consider wise.

Ellyon had realised that her parents were filthy rich. Blue mum was the public face of Shadow Broker Interstellar (whatever that company did, Ellyon didn't care) and yellow mum was a big shot in the army where lots of people kissed her butt because she was a war hero or something. Even the Council would frequently seek her advise. _Whatever._

Ellyon halfly regretted that her parents were sleeping outside her door. If they had gone to bed like normal parents, she could've listened to their moaning. Ellyon pulled a silly face and mouthed, "Liara, Liara, Liara." She checked the time on her omni-tool. _Right about now.., meh._

They slept outside her door because one time after a big scene, she had sneaked out and gone to Little Thessia, the asari-neighborhood in London. Asari were party-people! Little Thessia was one big party, lasting 24/7. But they looked so different from Ellyon! They had boobs, butts and rockhard, short scalpplates! Ellyon was petite to the point of underdeveloped.

Ellyon's scalpplates were weird. They were long and weak, she could pinch them between her thumb and fingers, and the tips were resting on her shoulders. She had hated them for the longest time, but in Little Thessia her droopy scalpplates were admired everywhere.

And asari had no eyebrows, unless they painted them on. Ellyon got up from her bed and checked herself out in her closet-mirror. She had one eyebrow. One eyebrow above her left eye. It was black and a little curved, just like the eyebrows yellow mum had. The one eyebrow stood out enough that it was a focal point for most people she met.

It made her special. She liked it.

Ellyon tried to sound like the voice-over in the Blasto 11 teaser, "This summer, Ellyon Shepard-T'Soni in One Eyebrow To Rule Them All. Elcor pheromones in selected theaters."

Suddenly a sharp pain hit her in her abdomen and she drew in a sharp breath through clenched teeth. Just as fast as the pain had hit, it was gone again. Krogan heritage had to count for something, she figured. Ellyon had experienced these sharp pains a lot lately, allover her body. She was worried, but it would worry her parents so much more that she was not of a mind to tell them. Auntie Karin was totally not an option. _No way!_

She twisted her ankle once. _Yeah. No way I let them fuss over me like that again. Even uncle Jeff came over from Tiptree, TIPTREE!, because blue mum had been crying over the link... (mindchuckle) ...if she had called auntie Tali like that, Auntie would have mobilized the heavy fleet to remove that boardwalk with an orbital strike. That would be so awesome!_

But the spikes had hit her in abdomen three times now. She needed expert advise and touched her left forearm. Her pink omni-tool glowed and she quickly punched a few buttons. A young girl's face, open and excitable, appeared in the little holo-screen. Little BFF-icons shot away from the screen like sparks.

"Ellyon, BFF! My parents are having sex! Wanna evesdrop?"

"What? Eew! Hearing a man moan like that is gross! And I don't let you listen to my mums having sex, so I'm not listening to yours."

"You're weird, sis!"

"Just.., let them be. They'll be happy and maybe you can come to Little Thessia with me today. Think it through, sis."

"Okay, forget it! But we're not spending the whole day in Salana's Facepaint Parlor. Your mums will never let you have your auntie Aria's faceprint anyway. Can you do that creepy black eye thing yet?"

"Tiffer, I can't do biotics, sheez! Listen, I'm having that pain again, there, and I don't know what I should do..."

The girl addressed as Tiffer pulled a "retard face" and went, "Duuuuuuh, hel-lo? You're menstuating, stupid cow. Ask your human mum for a tampon or something. Hey, listen, my parents are coming out, I'm gonna work them. Little Thessia this afternoon. Kitteh-snuggles!"

The connection severed, "Whatever..."

Ellyon was a little less worried now. She knew that menstruating was normal, all her girlfriends menstruated already. All parents made a big spectactle out of it, parties and stuff. Nothing to worry about. This could even be fun.

_This means I'm a grown-up now. Okay, humans only... but if it means party, I'm there. Let's get it started, yo!_

Ellyon yanked the door open and jumped over her startled mothers, "Outta mah way, grown up coming through!", She bounded to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. _Yellow mum will have to talk me through it, without looking...,_"Mama Shino!"


	9. Wait, what?

_Nononono. Not my kid and how could she believe that this much blood is normal and asari don't menstruate and it will be all right and she'll sleep with us tonight and we'll kiss her and we'll hold her and she'll sleep with us tonight just as when she was... little and-_

"Mum! You're mumbling!"

Shinobu's heart raced and she had red spots in her vision. In a skycar, she could put Cortez to shame. She was doing well over the speed-limit but she didn't care. Ellyon was bleeding from the one place she shouldn't bleed. Ellyon's voice returned her to reality.

"Ellyon! How you're doing, sweetheart?"

Ellyon giggled, "You left mum behind. That was cool!"

Shinobu supressed a smile, "Yeah, I guess it was... No, it wasn't cool, young lady!"

"Chillaxio, mum, I'm only menstruating. It's cool."

_Chillaxio?_ Shinobu filed that one for future reference, "Sweetheart, asari don't menstruate... trust me on this one. They just get impossible to live with."

Ellyon wasn't worried, she had thought this through a while ago, "And what if I'm not an asari? What if I'm a new kind of species? Humasari?"

"Sweetie, you're an asari because your mother is one. There are no exceptions. But Humasari, that's wicked, yo!"

Ellyon wrinkled her nose, "Mum, please don't talk street, please? Hey, can we go to Little Thessia when we're done? When auntie Karin is done...", Ellyon shuddered.

Shinobu wondered about Ellyon's aversion against Dr. Chackwas, but she decided she would bring it up some other time. Concentrate on Little Thessia, get her mind of Dr. Chackwas and have her examined so fast her head spins. Ooyah!, "Sure, we can go there. All right!"

"Faceprint?", as soon as Shinobu started to object, Ellyon rapidly cut her off, "Come on, mum, I was looking forward to being a grown up and having a period-party like all my friends had. Auntie Aria says that a faceprint separates the matrons from the maidens. Pleeeaaase?"

"You're almost sixteen.., how about a Sweet Sixteen party?"

"I want something I remember 600 years from now, mum. A party comes and goes."

Shinobu thought about that. It didn't make sense. Ellyon looked forward to a life of monthly bother because she wanted to be a grown up, but a milestone like sweet sixteen meant nothing to her. A party comes and goes. Where does she get that stuff- Aria T'Loak...

"Sweetheart, how often do you talk with 'auntie' Aria?"

"Auntie Aria is so cool! The way she looks when she goes like, "I. Am. Omega!", Ellyon tried to imitate the most wanted asari crime boss in the galaxy, "I always make her say it!"

"Seriously? You make Aria T'Loak do things?", that was new. Shinobu shook her head a little, "Listen, sweetie, auntie Aria is a dangerous woman, even when she sleeps. I would feel a whole lot better when I didn't have to hear that name anymore."

"Mum, why do you throw auntie Aria's christmascard away each year?"

"Because auntie Aria just sends them, she has no concept of what christmas is. She sends them so that I don't forget her. Why I am so important to her, I'll never understand. I'm more concerned with why she slithered her way into your life too."

"That's just mean!", Ellyon jolted in her chair, "Auntie Aria has feelings too! Her daughter is dead, but I.. I... ooooohw.", Ellyon would've rolled into a ball if she had been able to do so. The spike hit her and was gone again. Gasping for air, she tried to relax.

"Ellyon! Sweetie! Hang on, we're almost there!", Shinobu was besides herself. Trying to keep an eye on the skylane and the traffic, shotting glances at her daughter dealing with something horrible. Shinobu's mind shot in all directions. Was it really that simple? Aria T'Loak has feelings too? Ellyon thinking she's a new species? No. My daughter isn't a fluke, she isn't a whim of nature. Born too early. That must be it. Born too early. Born too early, yeah. That's right. That makes sense.

"Mum, you're mumbling!"

"It's okay, sweetie! There's the AMH! Don't panic, we're almost there!"

"Mum, slow down!"

_It's all right, they'll heal her with some medigel and I'll take her home and hold her in my arms and we'll fall asleep and it will all be a bad dream and then we'll laugh and call each other silly and I'll hold her in my arms and..._

There's the AMH. Carry or walk?"

"Carry.", Ellyon jolted excitedly, but when she saw the AMH building looming up her lower-lip trembled, "I'm scared..."


	10. Chackwas, investigating MD

Shinobu could hear Liara yell. It wasn't uncontrolled yelling, but it was cold and calculating. It meant that Liara was saving energy for possible use of her biotics. Shinobu couldn't make out what Liara was saying, but then, she barely heard Dr. Chackwas too.

Shinobu had carried Ellyon into the hospital and had handed her over to the medics. Then she went to wash her daughter's blood of her hands. Back in the central hall, she caught an earful from Liara for leaving her behind on the car platform. They reassured each other that everything would be all right and that they would be on their way soon. They would go to Little Thessia.

"Faceprint?"

"Faceprint."

"Sigh."

Then MP's quietly approached them and they were invited to follow. Both were put in different rooms with nothing in them but a metal table and two metal chairs, all bolted to the floor. The doors were locked behind them.

Soon, Dr Chackwas joined Shinobu.

"Karin, thank god! What is all this, where's Ellyon? How is she?"

Chackwas' face was rockhard and her eyes showed nothing but contempt for the woman she had once called a friend, "Sit down, admiral."

Shocked, Shinobu did as instructed. What was going here?, "Karin, what's with that admiral stuff?"

Chackwas threw a handful of medical scans on the table and leveled a cold stare at Shinobu, "Admiral, how long has this been going on? Had I known that you would be capable of this, I would've taken your daughter from your care years ago. You monster."

"Now wai-"

"Admiral! I have taken these scans to a pediatric specialist for a second opinion and he asked me why he was looking at the scans of a dead girl. After a cursory glance, admiral."

"Karin, I have never abused Ellyon..."

"Admiral, you've hit your daughter last night. She cried herself to sleep. She woke up bleeding from her not yet fully developed genitalia, admiral!", Chackwas was shuddering with anger, "God only knows for how long a time that poor child endured your attacks."

"She was so happy... she believed that she had her first period and she wanted me to talk her through bringing in her first tampon, through the closed bathroom door... Asari don't have periods... But she had been dreaming of a huge period-party... All her friends have had their happy firsts and Ellyon must have been thinking she was slow. Ellyon was so happy she was finally a grown up..."

"Admiral, I have had many vidtalks with Ellyon about this. She knows she will never get a period. Ever."

"Karin, ask Ellyon, please, I have never attacked her, never!"

"Off course she will say you never laid a finger on her, admiral. Out of fear you'll beat her within an inch of her life again, which will happen anyway. It all makes sense now, all those little gifts in her room, all those worthless tokens of a love that doesn't exist. It was just to buy off your guilt over abusing your own daughter, wasn't it, admiral?"

_Sixteen and a day..._

"What's that, admiral?"

"Karin, Liara and I love Ellyon with all our hearts. I once met a private, a Reaper Buster, a warhero. She had lied about her age so she could enlist. She was on the ground, with her unit, killing a reaper destroyer when she was sixteen and a day.

"I panicked, Karin, I was shocked, rattled... I didn't want that life for Ellyon. I didn't want her to join the army or the commando's or even join up with Zaeed's new para-military group. I didn't want her to become me or Liara, or have Hackett kicking her allover the galaxy because her last name is Shepard-T'Soni.

"We didn't want a life for Ellyon where she would always have to fight to equal us, don't you see?

"I know we are smothering her, spoiling her, smoothing over her shoplifting, lunchcredit hustling and whatever else she got herself into. I know we can't say no to her. Liara and I aren't good parents. We just love, love, love and hope she comes around..."

"Touching, admiral, but the scans don't lie. See all those encircled spots, admiral? All of them are recent internal damage, or bleedings. Over a hundred on this scan alone, admiral. You've beaten your very own child over and over again and she's defending you out of fear for more beatings. It's a good story, admiral, believable even. But the scans don't lie.

"Ellyon has been placed under protective custody with the Alliance child services, admiral. She'll be in good hands. And I don't know if you care, or why I am even telling you this... The bleeding has stopped and she seems fine now. ACS will closely monitor her condition without smacking her around."

Chackwas rose from her chair and knocked on the door. When she was almost out of the room, Shinobu plunged both her fists on the table and rose herself, "Chackwas! If you dare take Ellyon away from us, so help me god almighty as my witness, I'll find you. There will be nowhere in the galaxy where you can hide from me. I. Will. Destroy. You."

Chackwas froze for a bit, but then she moved on and a gloved hand, probably from a doorguard, closed the door behind her.


	11. Amber Alert

Ellyon was nervously waiting, wearing a hospital-gown, in a sterile examination room. She didn't understand what was going on, what all those doctors were doing, where Chackwas had gone and why that human nurse in training was replaced with a matriarchal asari who behaved way too friendly. The asari had a 'poor thing' look in her eyes that scared Ellyon more than anything.

"What's going on?", she asked with a trembling voice.

"Oh dearie, look at you, you're shivering! Let's see if we can find some warm clothes for a big girl like you.", the asari spoke. It was a friendly and warm voice, but Ellyon didn't trust her.

"Can I have my omni-tool? I don't speak asari. I'm earth-born. Please?", Ellyon asked in her littlest voice. She hoped the asari would fall for it.

The asari saw no harm in that. She nodded in her friendly manner and retrieved Ellyon's omni-tool. She did however study the bracelet a bit and noticed that it was just a kid's omni-tool. Probably loaded with hip vids, pictures of cute boys and music of the latest teenage band. And it was the cheapest pink.

How could the asari have known it was a topshelf edition of the most popular omni-tool for teenage girls?

The asari watched Ellyon noticably relax as she intitialised her omni-tool. She congratulated herself with her good call. Ellyon pushed a button and lied, "Now I can understand you." Ellyon had pressed the "come find me" button. Blue mum and yellow mum would be here soon. Ellyon had protested against linking her omni-tool with those belonging to her mums, but it was either that or no Girls Only omni-tool. Now she was happy for it.

They would be able to find her anywhere on Earth.

The asari asked a few questions about her cute omni-tool and Ellyon indulged her. Her mothers were coming and she felt safe.

Shinobu looked at the scans of Ellyon's body. The scans of a dead girl, but she was alive. All that internal wounding and scarring... What was going on with her daughter? _Why didn't she tell me? Why did she carry that burden alone? Why didn't I notice? I failed her, I failed her, I failed he-_

**blip**

A little light on Shinobu's omni-tool starting blinking in and out. _Ellyon! Good girl!_

Shinobu smiled at the blinking light. How Ellyon had objected to it...

The clerk, eager to sell the most expensive toy omni-tool ever used it to rope Shinobu in, "This edition of the Girls Only OT not only has a secret diary and a useful codex for today's young women, (Ellyon glowed with pride.), but next to extraskype vidcalling to manage those all important contacts an up and coming professionals value so.., (Ellyon bursted at her seams, Shinobu resisted the urge to roll her eyes.)," the clerk paused for dramatic effect and put on a "us know us" face, "... this Girls Only OT comes with a "Come find me button", Kahne Hadar's version of the Amber Alert, because let's face it, our children will always be our children, no matter how grown up they are."

"Look, cut the salespitch and tell me more about that button.", Shinobu demanded. The clerked eagerly explained the button's workings and the many ways in which a girl wearing the omni-tool could use it to warn her parents. "The best part is,", the clerk concluded, ", this system works on any planet linked up to the extranet network. On any planet with an extranet terminal, even if it is just one, your daughter will be traceable planetwide."

Ellyon threw a tantrum over it. No way she would be leashed to Shinobu and Liara more as she already was. But Shinobu played her trumpcard. Either get a Girls Only omni-tool, or don't get a Girls Only omni-tool. Ellyon had no other option but to accept. She wanted that OT badly. She demanded in turn that she could wear it right now. As they left the store, Shinobu several hundred credits poorer, Ellyon excitedly exclaimed, "This is so cool! It has a bio-calendar!"

_It has a bio-cale-_

Shinobu rose up and made for the door, "Guard, as your superior officer I order you to unlock the door this instant!"

It remained silent for a while, but then, "I-I can't obey that order, admiral."

_Good man._ "Then step aside because one way or the other, I'm coming through that door."

Shinobu took a few steps back, took a deep breath and pulled her left arm back. As she brought her arm foreward, her omni-tool fabricated a blade. With all the power she had in her, she struck the door.

The world exploded.

It was chaos unmatched. People were screaming for help, the sprinklers came online, emergency lights flickered and walls were wrecked. Shinobu was blown backwards by the sheer force of the explosion but other than being groggy, she had not sustained any injuries.

"No way I did that..."

Liara was dazed, shocked to her core. Dr Chackwas accusing her of letting Shinobu, her Shinobu, abusing Ellyon, just as she allowed Shinobu to abuse her had her brain reeling. Yes, something she felt like a tool for Shinobu to get off on, but her biotics would flat out kill a naked human. Sometimes, when she really wasn't up for it, just grabbing Shinobu's hair and pulling it hard till she stopped trashing worked just as good. But abusing Ellyon? Shinobu? How? When? Beating Ellyon within an inch of her life? Shinobu? Ellyon couldn't even scrape her knee without the woman who saved the galaxy becoming a mumbling nerve-wreck. And Liara would have to deal with the nightmares. Shinobu's nightmares.

Rational Liara kicked in. She surveyed the room she was placed in, choosing not to see or hear that awful woman sitting there and accusing her. That woman was dead people and if not, that woman would spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder. Liara was young. She could wait.

_This room probably has a biotic-dampener in place._ _Okay, minor setback. Calm down, Liara, bottle it up and unleash. Shinobu did not abuse Ellyon and the rest is just preposterous. We'll gather the evidence, analyse it, piece it together and we'll come to a conclusion. It must be Ellyon's body changing, shifting to allow... allow what? All Asari have biotics, but Ellyon has no biotic activity. That's what the doctors had said back then, no biotic activity. No bio-_

"Goddess! Chackwas, shut the azure up! Ellyon's biotics are manifesting and we never bothered preparing her because we didn't expect that they ever would. No biotic-activity does not mean that there are no biotics at all. All asari are biotics. Listen, whatever you do to me, I don't care, 20 years in a human prison is just insulting, but bring her core-temperature down, throw her in an icebath and hope that an involuntary discharge doesn't kill her! Go!"

Chackwas shook her head in righteous dismay, "Oh, this one is almost better than your bondmate's excuse. I'm an expert on asari-physiology, Dr T'Soni. Ellyon's biotics are negligible. A biotic sparkle will be the worst that can happen."

_But what if it is more? An untrained biotic panicking a singularity... Okay... Stay rational... Skyllian Five.., what did Shinobu teach me? When you bluff, seek for your oponent's pride. Don't bring them down, but play in to them and then show them their mistake._

Liara grabbed on of the scans and showed it to Chackwas. She started to tell the biggest lie of her life, "Then surely you see the pattern of those scars encircled here? See the pattern? All of them are biotic nodes. I don't know why it is happening the way it does, but it is happening. If you don't put my daughter on ice quick, you'll be responsible for her death. These are a lot of nodes, Dr. Chackwas."

**blip**

Liara's omni-tool came to life and a little light started blinking. Liara didn't care anymore. She stepped away from Chackwas and turned to the door while her biotic field sprung up. Biotic dampener in place or not, she had to save her daughter's life.

"Steer clear, Chackwas, this will rock the house."

The world exploded.

The chaos was unmatched. The lights went out, sprinklers came on line, wounded people were crying or screaming for help and walls were caving in. After a short while, emergency power kicked in and the lights came back on.

Liara was still standing in her biotic pose. Her biotic field had shielded her but her Eustachian tubes were ringing. The look on her face was almost comical hadn't the situation been so dire. Chackwas had been thrown from her chair and was down on the floor looking at Liara. Chackwas' voice trembled with shock and horror, "My god, you xeno-dildo, what did you just do?"

"N-nothing..."


	12. Kittehsnuggles

Ellyon was still chatting with the overly friendly Matriarch, but when the mood in the room changed, she feel silent. Medical personnel had been silently replaced by official looking men as the matriarch had kept Ellyon distracted. In a very short time, the ages old woman had broken through a kid's defenses. That battle had been unfair and one-sided in the favor of the Matriarch.

The Matriarch took Ellyon's hand, "Come along now, dearie, let's not keep these nice men waiting."

Ellyon's eyes darted across the room. Something was very wrong, she could feel it. She took a few steps with the Matriarch as that seemed to be the thing to do. Then a terrifying feeling came over her. They were taking her away!

"No! My mums are coming! Let me go!", She tried to free herself from the Matriarch, but the old asari had the strength of a thousand trees withstanding a typhoon. The men were closing in to come to the Matriarch's aid. It just made Ellyon fight harder. She screamed, kicked and tried to push the Matriarch away with her free hand.

The ACS men tried to constrain Ellyon and they weren't subtle about it. For a moment, Ellyon calmed down. Something came over her. A feeling that seemed to come from deep within her. She felt her blood rush through her, hurting her like she had never experienced before. Her brain pounded within her skull as if it wanted to jump out.

Ellyon was perfectly calm now, though she was heaving because of the pain that had wreaked through her. The Matriarch and the ACS men hesitated. For a few moments they had witnessed Ellyon convulse, mouth foaming while her eyes had rolled back into her skull. They were unsure of what to do next.

It started again. Ellyon was helpless but somehow she was not afraid. She felt like she was standing under a hot shower. It felt right. She felt like... Ellyon.

Her droopy scalpplates became firm and waved out, like the second coming of Medusa, the mythical human goddess who had serpents instead of hair. Ellyon's eyes went black and from the core of her very being a primal scream erupted from her mouth.

The world exploded around Ellyon.

Ellyon had no idea what manner of death and destruction she had brought forth. She fell on hands and knees and tried to breathe with every fiber of her being. Her arms couldn't support her, they might as well have been made out of pudding. As she fell prone, she lost control of her body-functions and she made a face.

"Oh, gross...", she murmered. Ellyon felt warm and eerily content otherwise, almost peaceful. With some effort she pushed a few buttons on her omni-tool and the open and excitable face of a young girl appeared in the holo-screen, from which little BFF icons sprang away like mini-fireworks.

"Ellyon! BFF! Where are you? Why are you crying?"

Ellyon just looked at her BFF's face and smiled a little weak smile, "Kitteh-snuggles...", she whispered and it went dark around her. Ellyon let herself being carried away into it. Leaving Earth...


	13. It was glorious

Shinobu was there first. No stranger to death and destruction, she saw, filed it away and scanned the room for Ellyon. In less than a second.

She spotted Ellyon and was by her side in a heartbeat, "Ellyon, sweetheart! Mama is here!", she yelled but rather than shaking her daughter, Shinobu checked for breathing and pulse. To her relief, she found that Ellyon had a strong pulse and was breathing steady, if shallow. Ellyon was merely out cold, covered in dust and dirt.

"Ellyon's mum?", Ellyon's BFF, Tiffer, was still connected. Initially surprised, Shinobu just looked at the little holo-screen. Then she reacted.

"Tiffer, take your forearm to your parents! Now, make tracks!", Shinobu barked. She felt a little bit guilty about it. Tiffer was loud, bouncy, bubbly and boy-sick (to both Shinobu's and Liara's relief), but never too bothered to help out during sleep-overs. Tiffer's parents contrarily never really enjoyed Ellyon coming over. Of course, they were honored to entertain the child of two war-heroes, but they weren't keen on asari.

Tiffer's dad came in the screen, in a weird angle because he was trying to look at the little screen on his daughter's forearm. Tiffer's dad was 6 feet 5 inch tall, "Mrs. Shepard-T'Soni? I don't understand..."

Shinobu looked back at Tiffer's dad. She wondered, in a fleeting moment, if at his side there were also little BFF fireworks going on. Shinobu quickly pushed the thought away, "Mr. DeSoto, I need you to make an emergency call to the Destiny Ascension and request for a Rogue-B Response Team to doubletime it to the AMH, authorised Shepard-1-Ultimate. Can you do that?", Shinobu did not wait for an answer and severed the connection. Ellyon mattered more to her than civilities.

The Rogue-Biotic Response Team wouldn't be dispatched from the Destiny Ascension. With this much chaos and confusion, trying to get help on the ground was a fool's errand. The dispatcher aboard the dreadnaught would not be in the middle of the panic and dispatch a ground team. Quick and troublefree. The authorization code she gave would legitimize the request. Civilians or non-asari were forbidden to place calls to the Destiny Ascension and the fine for ignoring that was pretty steep. The code changed daily and had no meaning beyond it's intended use. Shinobu's mother's code started with her maiden-name, Hiruku. The following digit(s) and word were just random filler and the whole was generated and managed by a tasked VI. Each Earth-midnight, all relevant personnel of sufficient rank received a new code.

Liara was close in Shinobu's wake. She was already shocked by what she had seen on the way. The insane amount of damage to the surroundings and the many wounded people she had seen had rattled her. She halfly registered a trained voice barking orders somewhere and she felt some relief at the fact that it was a human voice. Humans organized in minutes.

What Liara saw at ground zero was nothing short of horror. The stench of blood was heavy and there were dead bodies everywhere. It looked as if a kid had thrown an armful of ragdolls up in the hair and had left them were they landed. Humanoid bodies weren't supposed to twist like that. Liara didn't even begin to guess at how many Newtons were released here. No one in the room had stood a payek's chance on Tuchanka. _Not even Jack can match this..._

There was some stirring near the far wall from where Shinobu was sitting next to the unconscious Ellyon. Shinobu was giving orders to someone. It was a bit odd. She was talking into Ellyon's omni-tool. Liara realised that someone had actually survived Ellyon's discharge. An asari!

Shinobu? Relatively calm. Daughter? Out cold but fine otherwise Shinobu would've gone berserk. Liara navigated the ruined examination room, stepping over bodies and body-matter. _Death must have been instant..._

She kneeled next to the Matriarch. A quick glance over learned her that the old woman was dying. The matriarch had minutes left. Asking questions would be wrong, Liara felt. She gingerly laid her left hand on the Matriarch's forehead and made a few soothing noises.

"Where there is an end, there will be a beginning. One life leaves, so another can enter. You lived long, you learned, you shared and became a teacher yourself. Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess.", Liara whispered. It was more than she had said when her own mother committed suicide with poison.

The Matriarch was in excruciating pain, but to hear the old faith's prayer for the departing gave her just enough strength to whisper, "Natural... Sarat-Zashi... it was... it was glorious... beautiful..." Then the Matriarch passed away, but there was a strange mixture of intense pain and forlorn happiness on her face. Eyes that had seen through the ages, saw no more.

_Sarat-Zashi? Impossible... Sarat-Zashi don't survive their first discharge... And the chances of an asari being born Sarat-Zashi are astronomically lower than being born Ardat-Yakshi...The Matriarch was dying, she was just making peace... Ellyon can't be Sarat-Zashi... Why don't I know more about them? No, she said more... natural? How does that fit? Scans of a dead girl... Goddess! Even when I lie, I have to tell the truth!_

"Shinobu! Ellyon is a biotic, but not as we know it!"

"Heh, no shit.", Shinobu deadpanned, "All asari have biotics.", She softly stroked Ellyon's scalplates and tried to re-adjust her hospital-gown in an attempt to cover the parts of her body that lay exposed, "We thought she just didn't had affinity for it, too lazy maybe? Ellyon never works for anything, stuff, fluff, friends, school-grades, she just stretches out her hand and it fills."

"Rewarded forever, forever rewarded.", a husky asari voice remarked. Shinobu looked up from her daughter and saw a small team of asari medical personnel. There was an almost anorexic asari with them who was holding a medibag with the RBRT initials on it. Shinobu assumed that was the teamleader, the three other asari with her would be adept in throwing dampening fields and other protective biotics. They shot looks around that ranged from shock to utter disbelief. The husky anorexic asari spoke again, "Remarkable. Such a shame when they go senile and can't control their biotics anymore. Whoever stopped the poor woman did her a service."

"What? Dr., the Matriarch was a victim too.", Liara explained while she too kneeled down at Ellyon's side and supported herself by holding on to Shinobu's left shoulder with her right hand, "...Our daughter is Sarat-Zashi."

There were no gasps of horror. Sarat-Zashi were so rare that only very specialized researchers knew of the name and it's meaning. Ancient asari was also not something every asari had interest in. An average asari lapdancer had more interest in her looks and her creditchit. Damn culture, party at eleven.

"I'm Dr. Marva Pol.", said the husky asari as she unceremoniously lowered herself to get a better look at Ellyon, "Hmmm, strong pulse, warm skin, maybe too warm, breathing calmly, lost fluids and fecal matter, eyes bloodshot, non-asari eye-color, single human eyebrow, interesting, strong mother, stronger bondmate, scalpplates long and weak, unexpected, no precedent," Dr. Pol took a deep breath, "Level of destruction unlike witnessed before. Should be dead, isn't. Fascinating.", she looked up and saw the confusion on Shinobu and Liara, "Excuse me, I studied on Sur'Kesh centuries ago. I adopted the salarian way of analyzing and organizing. As for your daughter, I would love to take her with and make her the crowning achievement of my career, but that would be selfish. Your daughter should be fine, she may sleep for a day or two, but I wouldn't worry. Maybe she'll suffer a migrane afterwards, maybe not. Take your daughter home and worry about her future."

"It will not be that easy, doctor,", said Admiral Hackett, who entered the wrecked room while ordering with a hand gesture the small contingent of marines in his wake to hold positions, "...as I would be very interested in learning how one of my admirals goes from ignoring all traffic laws to being charged with child-abuse to having her daughter destroy the AMH. Then we may be going home, but the admiral's daughter stays under medical care and under guard, until it is clear what is going on."


	14. What isn't going wrong?

Dr. Pol and Liara had it quickly figured out between the two of them. Dr. Pol, as a strong proponent of the Fresh Start Movement, was not inclined to become mired in the old ways. Sarat-Zashi, ancient asari term for Divine Storm was too floaty for her tastes. Too up there and not enough down here. History and the romantic point of view of an archeologist was fine, but the data comes from the here and now.

Biotics come from the mind. They are used at the price of quickly burning calories and rapid mental exhaustion. Malnutrition, dehydration and temporary catatonia are real and potent enemies. The gestures biotics make aren't for show, but they aren't needed either. Biotics learn to control their biotics by making wizardry gestures to visualise and/or gauge strength for themselves of the flow of an energy that is a concept more than a tangible. A biotic can just stand there and will a singularity into existence. [Read the official novels. Especially Grayson's daughter is interesting.]

With something Dr Pol and Liara both agreed on, they set to find out what was going on with Ellyon. The scans were interesting to Dr Pol, (Could be this, could be that, no way to be sure (Breath), need more info.), but obviously not evidence enough that Ellyon was a modern version of an ancient asari boogey-man.

Security-footage provided a breakthrough. Dr Pol and Liara both saw it at the same time, jumped up from their chairs and shouted in unison, "Her eyes go over black!"

The famous asari black eyes were the source of so many untruths that even young asari thought there was something wrong with them when their eyes didn't go over black during biotics 101. Their eyes would go over black when it came to matters of the physiology and not of the mind.

Dr Pol, in an uncharacteristic move scratched a scalpplate, "Shocking revelation, scans significant, show internal damage, convulsions, mouthfoam, loss of urine and fecal matter, black eyes (Breath), forceful biotic explosion, no , no, yes, maybe, fifteen years, painspikes causing internal bleeding, rapid succession, possible early warning system, self preservation. (Breath) Body stores biotic energy? No, biotic power always level, some have more, some have less, grow more effective yes, not grow more, unless..."

Dr Pol leaned on her chair and requested a glass of water. Liara rolled her eyes and helped Dr. Pol out, who was motioning with a free hand to Liara to say nothing while she downed the cup of water in one big gulp. When done, Dr Pol calmly said, "Dr T'Soni, your daughter is a biotic epileptic amplyfier and an autistic. Not unheard of, they're also called Sarat-Zashi."

Liara resisted the urge to facepalm, "Dr Pol, are you listening to yourself? Sarat-Zashi aside, are you saying that Ellyon is a living L5 implant?"

"Evidence suggests body is intolerant. Autism can enhance or suppress. No biotic affinity, but displays idiot-savantism in studies of mind and body, can be random, maybe simply teenage girl, socially inept, cannot discern between levels of friendship, (Breath), Biotic level foreign, autistic brain unable to disperse, pushes into the body, painspike as body distributes biotic level where it shouldn't, stress, mixed signals from school, friends, parents, seeks signals out instinctively to induce high stress, tantrums, etcetera. (Breath) Result evident and logical, epileptic episode, body violently purges itself, Brain and body go inert, cycle starts anew. Suggest moving to the country."

Liara smiled, "Always nice to talk to someone with a sense of humor. I take it that Ellyon's body amplifies her biotic level because it is intolerant?"

"Basically. No epileptic episode, maybe small tremor, topple things over with daily discharge. Epileptic episode multiplies distress to near-death experience, panic, unparalleled explosion as function of self-preservation. No way to do otherwise, how could she? (Breath) Biotics matter of the mind, not the body. Must learn new way of discharging biotic level, maybe make little explosions. Ellyon high level biotic. Best way, put in freezer like Jacqueline Nough."

Liara jumped up and placed both her hands on top of her head, "Cryo-stasis?!"

Dr. Pol felt sorry for Liara, but Ellyon was her concern, "Dr T'Soni, Ellyon's life is at stake. If she continues on this path, her body will eventually damage internal organs. My salarian analysis might have understated that. Ellyon will not grow old if you don't take action. Judging by the scans, maybe twenty years more. She has already endured a lot of punishment, I'm afraid."

"I still don't understand it completely..,", Liara said while she let her hands slide past her temples and from there just let them fall at her sides, ",..Ellyon survived..."

"Maybe Ellyon misses something, or the asari that suffered from this condition in the past missed something. It can also be that Ellyon gained something past asari didn't. The way I'm reasoning.. hystorical cases weren't intolerant, but the poor girls still were unable to disperse the energy like you or I would. We bleed energy freely, we eat, drink or sleep and our level tops out again. Anyway, the girls still being epileptic and autistic they probably behaved along the same lines Ellyon does. They have their episode, boom, not pretty. But it is all conjecture. There's no information detailed enough about the Sarat-Zashi. All I can say is, based on what I've learned so far, is that their bodies probably bled off their biotic level like the brain does... With no need to purge because their bodies enjoyed the biotic energy, maybe even retained quantities of it, you'll probably be able to imagine what happened to the poor girls. They never stood a chance.", Dr. Pol made an 'explosion' gesture with her right hand, "Living timebombs. Ellyon's body doesn't want to be a vessel, if you allow. Unlike the Sarat-Zashi, there's no symbiosis, a mutually beneficial co-existence. The brain gives the burden to the body, the body bleeds the level. Residual biotic energy is rejected, Ellyon becomes erratic, distressed, seeks sensory overload and forces an epileptic episode, body purges entire biotic level and whatever else it is retaining at that moment."

Liara was determined, "No cryo-stasis. There has to be another way."

Dr. Pol placed a gentle hand on Liara's shoulder and spoke with a firm bed-side manner, "Medicine has been, and always will be, a slow journey into the future. Life does not wait for medicine to figure it out. Just as we think that we have catched up, life dances away from us while showing us how it dealt with the problems we were trying to solve all along. That's the difference between our fields of science, Dr T'Soni. Your work is out there waiting for you, waiting for you to dig it up. My work doesn't wait for me. It is always one step ahead of me. Medicine will find a way, but Ellyon may not be able wait that long. Afterall, we are not Mordin Solus."

"Wait, Ellyon can't be epileptic, she never had seizures!"

"Dr. T'Soni, for all we know, you're an epileptic... Many people are epileptics and never once in their lives will they get an episode and they'll never, ever be diagnosed as epileptics. Yet, that doesn't mean that under the right circumstances, they won't have an episode. Entropy, Doctor. At one minescule point in the span of a millisecond, all particles in the cosmos take a step corewards all together at once and the future forever changes. The rest is our own doing, the result of how we cope with entropy."

Dr. Pol rose from her chair and started pacing around, "No cryo-stasis, have to accept wish of mother, body now knows how to purge, will purge more often and sooner, will try and protect tissue from scarring, more erratic episodes, thrill seeking, maybe become criminal, mind will never rest, becomes unstable, maybe add psychosis to autism, either way, girl toast.", Dr Pol interrupted her own analysis by getting another drink of water from the water tank Liara had earlier gotten her a cup from. Liara wondered if that was all Dr. Pol sustained herself with.

Dr. Pol inhaled deeply and continued, "Provide stability, structure, vertical agenda, study, sport, competition, expert help, still have to make up curriculum as they go along, hypothermia still the way to go, body numb, discharge muffled, less severe. Biotics are of the mind, not of the body, will need to learn to do biotics with the body. Ellyon's biotic level of stupendous quantity, growing more effective terrifying prospect. Could still work out, yes, no, maybe, must try.", Dr. Pol took a few breaths and turned to Liara, "Ardat-Yakshi monestary, though I prefer to call it a sanatorium. Old superstitions block the way to progress."

Liara could see what Dr Pol was getting at. But placing Ellyon in a place where imperatively driven sexual predators were kept from society? Not so much.

"It's a boarding-house for challenged asari, Dr T'Soni. It's funded by the Fresh Start Movement and radically different from the old ways. The girls are stimulated to study, engage in competitive sports, explore their talents. No more self loathing, doing penance for something most of them won't even engage in. Though the boarding-house sadly still relies on the Justicars... Even then, the FSM tries to give them worth and purpose and teaching them that being an evolutionary off-shoot of the asari race isn't a bad thing." Dr Pol couldn't hide a little pride, "The boarding-house is even built in the middle of Almari, a major victory for the FSM and what it stands for."

Indeed. Shortly after the reaper war, many prominent matriarchs started to teach new insights, new ways to view and manage a recovering culture. If there had ever been a point in time so perfect for a radical change of course, that was it. The matriarchs wanted slates to be wiped clean and to leave the past resolutely behind. Some even went as far as tentatively teaching that the asari should look to themselves for procreation, instead of selecting xenospecies for bondmates. In the twenty years after the reaper war, the boarding-house in Armali, commonly known as the FSM-institute, was indeed the FSM's finest hour. Still, the FSM's influence in the greater asari expanse was small, but they were gaining ground.

"You should go with Ellyon, take out an apartment close to the boarding-house so that she can go home on the weekends."

Liara rested her head in her hands, leaning on the table with her elbows, "Ardat-Yakshi can never leave that place. Do we want that for Ellyon?"

"Ellyon has the best chance there. The teachers there are highly trained and should be resourceful enough to help someone use biotics with the body instead of the mind. It isn't an old ways prison where we tell our own people they're worthless animals, it's a place of personal growth and stimulation where we teach our own people they're asari too. But Ellyon isn't ardat-yakshi, an evolutionary step into an, admittedly, scary direction. Ellyon isn't a predator. Come to think of it, in little over two years she'll be earth-legal. The boarding-house can only keep her as long as she's your ward. It will be her choice to stay on, or leave. And go alone, leave your bondmate behind on Earth. Regular visits to Thessia, off course, but Admiral Shepard's rollercoaster emotions and boundless love for Ellyon can undo in minutes what other people will teach your daughter in a week."

Liara slumped forward and bumped her forehead of the table a few times, arms limp at her sides, "I... I need to think about this."

Dr Pol shook the water-tank to get the last drops and managed to get another cup's worth out of it, "You shouldn't think long, Dr T'Soni. It won't be long before a military fellow scientist somewhere realises that the Alliance is sitting on a fifteen year old bio-weapon that can be trained at the Grissom Academy too.


	15. The girl and the bottle

Shinobu took it hard. News-bulletins couldn't stop using the word "child-abuse" in conjunction with her name. (Admiral Shepard, once charged with child-abuse and variations there off.) Liara had taken Ellyon to the FSM-institute on Thessia, leaving almost overnight. Shinobu was left behind in a big luxury condo that suddenly didn't feel like home anymore.

No more muffled giggling coming from a bunch of teenage girls in Ellyon's room. No more Liara absently humming along to Teen Music Radio. No more sunday-morning breakfasts with just the three of them.

It was as if the soul was forcefully ripped from the home and as a direct result from Shinobu too.

Vidcalls with Liara started to end in fights. Then Shinobu started to place drunken calls to Liara, ranting till Liara severed the link. It went on and on, going from bad to worse, until the day that Shinobu was served legal papers by a humorless asari.

Shinobu and Liara were no longer bondmates.

Shinobu's hair grew long, to well over her shoulders. It made her oriental features mysterious, even sultry. Her appetite for liquor grew too. She started to show up at the LAO half way plastered and frequently with a liberal interpretation of military decorum, but her aide worked himself to the bone to limit the damage.

It wasn't until Shinobu tried to park a military vehicle on top of Dr. Chackwas that the Alliance had no room to maneuver around the erratic admiral anymore. Shinobu was invited to cashier herself. In light of her past service, she was let go with all honors due a retiring admiral, but it was said that the Alliance Admiralty had let go of a collective sigh of relief that could be heard on Luna.

In a bid to clean up, Shinobu turned to arts and crafts and tried her hand at painting. It didn't help and drunk became the new sober. She became a famous face in Little Thessia's nightlife and in the drunk-tank of down-town Metro-Police her visits became so frequent that the beatcops coming on nightduty would ask if Shepard had been brought in yet.

The city of London finally had enough too. In the city's infrequent sweep of the known drunks, Shinobu was mopped up as well and forced into rehab. The therapy seemed to take and Shinobu was released, with a weekender full of clothes and a card with the address of an AA-chapter close to her home.

Shinobu tried. AA-meets were off-set with bar-meets, but she also humbly requested to be allowed use of the LAO training facilities. It was there that she met a gorgeous human brunette filing-clerk who called herself Siobhan and it all came together for Shinobu.

Liara was relieved that Shinobu had found some direction and peace in her life again. Ellyon didn't care for Siobhan one bit. But Siobhan was good for Shinobu. Booze vanished from the house, food appeared and classical music came from the open windows when Siobhan picked up the violin. Siobhan inspired Shinobu's painting and an art-centre showed tentative interest in her talent.

And so it came close to christmas a little over two years later. Ellyon would soon be earth-legal.


	16. Land ho!

Every morning when Liara opened the windows of her apartment in the Almari district on Thessia, she found it hard to believe how fast the destroyed district had been rebuild. Further out, you could still get glimpses of the horror that had passed through, but here it was as if none of it had ever happened.

She heard bells ringing and a smile came on her lips. It were the bells of the FSM-institute, signalling morning classes. Not far from here, Ellyon would be collecting her datapads. Below her, lithe voices carried on the air. It was early and not many asari were outside yet, so Liara could make out fragments of sentences and greets. In a few hours, there would be so many voices talking all at once that it would be hard to even make out a single syllable.

It was good to be back in the place of her birth again, even though the house where she grew up with Benezia and the park where she went on her first archeological dig didn't exist anymore. She had tried to revisit the place and at some point knew for sure that she was standing at the right spot, the exact spot where Benezia had gotten an earful from two parkguards. The park was gone and so where the houses that had flanked it. Liara was standing in a skycar-parking infront of the Almari Mall.

In the street, an asari shouted her name and when Liara looked at her, the asari wove at her with a big smile on her face. Liara wove back. She didn't know who the asari was. It happened often that a random asari would greet her as she walked the streets of Almari. Liara T'Soni was someone on Thessia, but still a maiden too. Most of the greets came from maidens and early matrons. In the heart of the greater asari expanse, a matriarch is a matriarch when she becomes a matriarch and being acknowledged by them, meant you were either one of her student, family or a matriarch yourself.

Liara didn't mind that. It stung her that her scientific work didn't get the recognition it deserved. Her total revision of her Prothean papers probably didn't help too, even if it was revised with information straight from the horse's mouth. The plucky historian and archeologist stubbornly plowed on, however.

Liara turned away from the window when a little "ping!" sounded. Her morning-coffee was ready. Her first acquainting with coffee wasn't a success. The face she pulled after her first taste is still one of Joker's favorite stories. But add some Almari spices and sweeteners and suddenly coffee was a delicacy beverage. Not bad at all.

She leaned against the the kitchen-counter, holding her coffee-mug clapsed between both her hands while enjoying the smell that rose up from the mug. From where she was, she could see into the living-room. Ellyon had taken up competitive gymnastics, acrobatic tumbling and modern dance, next to studying the history of the Justicars. Ellyon learned fast and was proficient at whatever she choose to do from the moment she picked it up. There were ribbons, cups, extranet printouts and other sports winnings hung on one wall. Liara couldn't help to be proud when she looked at Ellyon's accomplishments. Ellyon had come so far in so little time.., it was as if she had become someone else. Ellyon grew up fast in the FSM-institute. So fast in fact, that Matriarch Sarina Pol, the older sister of Dr. Marva Pol, and headmaster of the FSM-institute had called it 'un-asari'. Ellyon didn't slow down. In a society where longevity negated necessity, Ellyon was a blur.

Drinking the last coffee Liara pushed herself away from the counter and moved over to the dinnerbar, where a little vidcaller was sitting. There were some new voice-messages and she selected playback.

"Mrs T'Soni-Shepard, this is Horlo Gom (Volus breathing sounding like 'hiss-click') The Thessian Business Buro has some concerns about vague quarterly statements regarding Shadow Broker Interstellar. (Hiss-click.) Please arrange for an audit of the company's books. TBB thanks you for your expediency in advance."

Liara sighed. Everything was vague to Horlo Gom. He was a hard volus to please.

"Mum, I sneaked out of class! (giggling) Will you buy me some 'My First Pony'-points? I used up all my extranet time for this week to find info on Justicar Samara and I want to enter Liabu in the Earth-division pony-show. We can win a weekend to Palaven, mum! Bye!"

_Goddess! I keep telling her that we have a better chance of getting hit by a meteor... _'My First Pony' was a girl's community game that had it's origin on Earth. It had started out as a game that came pre-loaded on toy-OT's and had grown out to the extranet where girls could rate each other's ponies, leave comments and buy pony-stuff with 'My First Pony"-points. The game even fascinated girls beyond the sol-system and it was insanely popular on Rannoch. Sponsored pony-shows gave away huge prizes, but the chance of winning was pretty low. Liara figured that the company behind the game was looking to expand business to include turian teenage girls too. _Oh well, it's for Liabu..._

Liara took a sip from her mug and drew air. She rolled her eyes at herself. It happened so often, trying to drink from a mug she had already emptied...

"Hey, it's Nyrity... I know we just met and this is crazy, but call me if want to go for drinks..., okay? Well.., bye!"

Liara looked up from her mug. _Nyrity? Who in goddess' name is Nyrity?Oooh, the girl I met at the University of Thessia the other day. Writing a paper on humanity's impact on the galactic balance. She smelled faintly like a wet payek...Definitely friendzoning this one before it becomes awkward._

"Hey, me here. When you wake up, call me back? Traveling by commercial spaceliner is killing me and I don't know what to do with myself. Just call back, it should automatically connect to my seat. Lo-, talk to you soon."

_Shino! Goddess! We were supposed to do christmas shopping today!_

Christmas was virtually unknown on Thessia. There was no build up to the holidays of holidays in Almari. Ellyon had presented her wishlist as usual mid-way earth-october and had not mentioned it since. She had a strangely ambivalent take on it, but enjoyed the days to the fullest. For Shinobu the holidays had a loose religious/spiritual meaning and Liara just cherished the magic of it all.

But on Thessia it was business as usual and it had totally slipped her mind. She put the mug down and pushed callback on the vidcaller.

Liara was greeted by a look on Shinobu checking herself in a hand-mirror.

"Shino? What are you doing?"

"Checking my make-up. I dozed off earlier and I was afraid I was looking like a tribal warchief.", Shino disappeared from the screen and returned a moment later. Her sleek raven hair flowed over her shoulders. She lifted her hands and pushed her hair backwards while softly shaking her head. Shinobu's hair seem to flow back in slow motion, "Thanks for calling back. Sorry for being so late, but this is the cheapest flight I could get. A pricefighter spacelifting the last humans to the colonies before christmas hits. I understand why they are so cheap. I had a peanutbutter-sandwich for lunch. I can't afford anything else, before you ask. I settled out of court with Chackwas and only one of my paintings sold. But hey, why are you not talking?"

Liara had just been looking and listening. She couldn't believe that only two years ago this woman was an admiral with a stern face, who had self-destructed in way that had broken Liara's heart in more ways than one, only to bounce back looking like an oriental poster-woman for lotus-soap.

"L-look at you!"

Shinobu chuckled, "Keep it together, T'Soni! The days of omni-gel are behind us."

Liara shook her head, "You're right. I'm sorry. I just expected, you know, not this. Awkwardness, angry looks, mutual insults and an uneasy truce so Ellyon can have christmas.", Liara slammed a flat hand on the countertop and the little vidcaller danced around a bit under the dissipating energy, "Not this!"

Shinobu stared back at Liara. Liara knew every motion that stoic oriental face could make. Little things, miniscule muscle shifts, that told her more about how Shinobu felt than if Shinobu would open her mouth and actually say it.

"That bad, huh?", Shinobu spoke softly while looking to her left, probably through a viewport, "I can see Thessia from here..."

"No, you can't just do that, Shino. I worried about you and now you just show up looking like... that and start talking to me as if we last talked yesterday? No."

"Liara, I'm sorry. This is sober me. Remember sober me? I'm not going to fight you, there's an obese person occupying two seats sitting next to me and he's evesdropping. Why don't you tell me what Ellyon wants from you for christmas?"

"No."

Something dawned on Shinobu, "Wait, hold the link, this is about my voice-message, isn't it? You're mad with me because I didn't say what I was going to say. But it is not going to be that easy, tentacle monster. You first. Come on, say it."

Liara rested comfortably on the counter. It was just like old times, a game they had played many times over small things and big things. They were on familiar grounds.

"I practiced my biotic slam, you know."

"Say it, Shepard-T'Soni."

"It's T'So-"

"Hah! Come on, little miss blue in the face, say it. You know you wanna."

"Where is your girlfriend?"

"Ouch."

"Hah!", Liara shook a fist at the screen, "Two can play that game, sister.", she tried not to laugh, but failed.

"Just for that laugh, I'm gonna let that jab slide.", Shinobu said, "You win. I was going to say 'Love you', just... I caught myself. Because I realised that I meant it. We're landing in an hour on Thessia Spaceport, pick me up okay?", Shinobu severed the connection while she turned to her right and hissingly said, "What are you looking at, fatso?"

_Thank you for not making me say it. Goddess! Why are humans so... resilient and tough? Why do they always come back better and stronger than they ever were? Six months ago I wouldn't have given a credit for Shino's life and here she is. Keeping a promise she made two years ago. Hey, I'm done with self-pity and rolling around in my misery.., let's bounce back! Bondmate left me, hey ho! I'll just mention omni-gel. I'll make an attempt on Karin's life, it's the right thing to do. Oh, was it the wrong thing? Here, have a small fortune, no hard feelings. Who can live like this? You need to analyse, consider things, get opinions, make small adjustments. You can't just wing it and bludgeon your way through. Argh. I'll figure it out, maybe get it right this time. I'll better get to the spaceport... Thessian Tea is alcoholic._

"Glyph, you have the house!", Liara said on her way out the door, "Stall Horlo Gom."

Glyph, Liara's VI, floated out of her office and followed her to the door, "I'll sent Horlo Gom a new calculator, compliments of the Shadow Broker, mistress."

When the door closed after Liara, Glyph hovered for a few seconds and then vocalized, "Ba-da-boom-tish."


	17. Hello, I love you!

The central hall of Thessia Spaceport was huge. It had a rushed feel in the architecture, a result of it being build shortly after the reaper war as one of the first structures Thessia needed the most. Hospitals, government buildings, schools, they all had basically the same look and feel. Domed structures with no decoration, not even the famous asari spires. There were already plans to build a new spaceport not far away from the current location, with a more traditional look and feel to it, but the plans met staunch resistance from the FSM's political arm. Liara had no hard opinion on the FSM. She respected what they were trying to accomplish, especially on the inter-asari level, but not all tradition blocks progress. A few spires, Liara reckoned, couldn't hurt.

Liara and Marva Pol had many debates about the FSM over the last two years. Liara found the ideas of the FSM thought-provoking but she also had detected an almost human desire to have it all, and to have it now. Something about the FSM didn't sit well with Liara. The FSM, she feared, could easily become the asari's Cerberus. Based on laudable ideas anyone should be tempted to adopt, but in great danger of becoming a monster onto itself.

The central hall was bristling with life. A coming and going of asari carrying suitcases and other items that breathed travel. There were remarkably few non-asari walking about. It was predominantly asari wearing the iconic long one-piece dresses with the muted colors. But Liara had also seen asari wearing colorful clothes. She had spotted an asari walking on cheap plastic flip-flops with tropical print, one wearing a shirt with elcor fractals and one asari who did her best to flash a lower-back tattoo while trying not to be obvious about it.

Liara herself had taken to wearing earth casual fashion herself, loose blouses and cargo slacks but she remained conservative in her color choices. Off-whites and boy-blues were still her favorite. Quite early on during her stay on Earth she had discovered sneakers and that had been love at first sight.

Without realising it, Liara was a part of the small shifts in the asari culture and traditions, yet if you were to ask her, she would point at an asari in the traditional dress and tell you that was how she saw herself. And for the rest she was the very model of a scientist asari.

Liara made her way through the bustling hall, trying to find a spaceport-terminal that wasn't backed up with a queue of people waiting to use it, or out of order. She had no choice but to settle in a queue that was only ten asari deep. When she finally was allowed to use the terminal she told it, "Admiral Shepard."

"The requested name does not appear in the registered arrivals for today. Did you offer the correct name for the person you are welcoming to Thessia?"

"Check arrivals again and extrapolate a name with Shepard as key.", Liara requested.

"Working. One Mrs. Shinobu Helloise Shepard-T'Soni. Departed from Earth, landfall fifteen minutes ago. Mrs. Shepard-T'Soni is currently being processed through customs and will arrive in the central hall through gate 45 shortly."

_Off course. Gate 45. Why not Gate 1? And why didn't she register with her rank? She would've been upgraded from coach to preferred. Every way has to be the hard way with Shinobu. She's doing this on purpose, I know it. All these little things to keep me off balance._

Liara pushed away from the terminal and scouted for Gate 45. She was close to Gate 11. Giving herself a lecture for forgetting most of the important things for today, Liara tried to hurry to where Shinobu would enter the central hall. With all the people who were seemingly randomly walking around, it wasn't easy.

Liara sighed with relief when she spotted Shinobu just standing there and not ordering Thessian Tea from the nearby concession stand. A little part of Liara, but only a very little part, saw the dark humor in an alcoholic ordering an alcoholic hot drink unawares because she loved tea. Not that Thessian Tea was strong liquor, the amount of alcohol in it was trace at best, but it would still be a cruel joke.

Shinobu was checking a little screen on her OT, totally oblivious to the heads she turned. She looked confident and healthy. She wore a red shimmering dress with beautiful asian embrodery that hung just above her knees, (Crane birds and a selection of japanese flowers, Liara knew.) complimented with a crimson bolero. And something Liara had never expected Shinobu to have.., from her shoulder hung a shoulderbag. Shinobu looked up from her OT as if she had felt Liara's presence. Her eyes scanned her surroundings for a while and then her face broke into a smile, "Liara! Over here!"

Liara was not prepared for the force with Shinobu would embrace her. It wasn't a bearhug embrace, but it came out of nowhere. Shinobu buried her face in the nook between Liara's neck and right shoulder and a little cry escaped her. Liara answered the embrace out of reflex. She felt pretty conflicted. She was sure that she had dissolved their partnership for the right reasons. There was nothing left of Shinobu to love, as she was drunkingly ranting and cursing over the link back then. The news that had come from Earth getting more worry-some by the day... But here she stood holding Shinobu in her arms. And nothing felt wrong about that.

"I hate you, you know that?", Liara whispered, "I hate you for being the strongest woman in the galaxy with the lowest self-esteem in the universe. I hate you for constantly selling me front row seats to your misery, but goddess forgive me, I love you for how you make me feel right now."

Shinobu ended the embrace and corrected her clothes. It took her much longer than needed, but Liara had no problems waiting Shinobu out.

"Where did you park your car?"

Liara facepalmed, "Okay, you know what, it's all right. Pick up your weekender and let's go. We have christmas shopping to do and a house to decorate _before_ we pick Ellyon up from the institute. Come on."

Shinobu wrestled with her weekender as she was trying to keep up with Liara, "Come on Liara, don't be like that. I'm sorry, okay? Slow down a little, I'm on heels."

Liara walked on with a T'loak-y look in her eyes, "Well then, admiral, learn to dribble."


	18. Ascension of sorts

Ellyon didn't remember much from the flight to Thessia and the FSM-institute, apart from a profound moment she still wasn't sure of whether it had been a dream or if it was a memory of a waking moment during that time. Sedated as Dr. Pol kept her, out of fear for an episode in space, or just to make the flight to Thessia easier on all involved, Ellyon swam around the edges of reality.

She was sitting in the lap of a young girly-faced asari. The young woman showed some discomfort at trying to keep a sedated 15year old girl from sliding from her lap, while watching something Ellyon couldn't see. Ellyon sensed no fear or worry from the young woman, rather, the woman was radiating a determination coming from having made a decision. She smelled like flowers, lotus flowers and Ellyon was happy. The scent the young woman was wearing she was gifted, out of nowhere on a normal day like any other, by someone she cared about a great deal. Ellyon knew that, but she couldn't name the people. She only knew that whatever was going on with her, the young woman holding her close cared more for her than anything. As if the both of them were separate, individual parts of the same body.

From far away, as if it was coming to her from under water, Ellyon heard a voice saying they were coming up on the Arctarus Mass Relay. The young asari tightened her grip on Ellyon a little and tried to hoist her deeper into her lap, "Come on, Ellyon,", the asari spoke soflty, ", ...work with me a little. Oopsie daisy.". Ellyon tried, she wanted to help that very familiar asari who smelled so much like mum. At the moment Ellyon shifted her weight, the young asari pulled her in closer. Their heads bumped, "Goddess!", breathed the young asari and Ellyon finally knew for sure that it was her mother in who's lap she was sitting. A memory darted past in Ellyon's warped awareness, a memory of words rather than images, "You say 'oopsie daisy' when you lift, not before."

They hit the Mass Relay.

Ellyon found herself in a park. It wasn't a park she had ever been to. It was beautiful, serene and almost too perfect. A marvel of horti-architecture and centuries of patient upkeep. It wasn't at all like the parks on Earth. In comparison, parks on Earth were hastily thrown together swatches of greenery everybody agreed on that it could be called a park so it probably was one.

Ellyon's mind was clear and her body didn't feel heavy and foreign anymore. She felt lithe and content and that made sense to her. In a place like this, everybody is free of the universe. In a place like this, you're just you.

Not far from Ellyon, Liara was digging a hole in the ground. It was an even younger Liara, digging and digging, sometimes stopping to check a self-made map on which colorful symbols were drawn with the unsteady hand of a child. Child-Liara did not acknowledge Ellyon. Even when she looked up, directly at Ellyon, she showed no signs that she was realising someone was watching her.

"I was sure there was Prothean treasure right there by the trees."

Ellyon jumped a little, "Jeebus! Stop doing that, mum! You know I hate it when you do that."

Liara smiled and pulled Ellyon close, "I'm sorry for this, we must be involuntarily sharing memories when we're going through the Mass-Relay. You're very brave."

Ellyon thought about it for a moment, "It's weird, but not scary. Where are we going, mum?"

Liara sat down in the grass and beckoned for Ellyon to sit with her, "Mother-daughter huddle, come on."

Ellyon sat herself between Liara's legs and leaned back while Liara wrapped her arms around Ellyon's body and rested her chin on Ellyon's right shoulder, "We're going to the FSM-institute on Thessia. You need to be in a place where you can get help with learning how to use your biotics. I'll be living close by, so you can be home on the weekends."

Ellyon loved how Liara talked with her. Mum could be pushy, angry, disappointed, approving or proud with her, but she would never treat her like she was a five-year old. But it would still be like 'I'm your mother and you're my daughter', unlike now. Now they were two asari talking in place where they in a sense were one and the same entity.

"Is that why mum isn't coming too?"

Liara had trouble understanding the leap in logic, so she tried to give an answer that would generally link to Ellyon's question, "Mama Shino loves you so much, that she loses sight of who the both of you are. Mama Shino tries to be everything at once for you, because she still can't believe that you're her child. Just like she still can't believe that I'm her bondmate."

Ellyon giggled, "You know Mama Shino will run off doing stupid things, now that you're not taking care of her? She'll go all mumbly and cross-eyed and wanting all of us to sleep in her arms and shit. No one will tell her she's mumbling..."

"Mama Shino is old enough to look after herself. She showed the reapers the door, remember?", Liara repositioned herself a little and rested her chin on Ellyon's right shoulder again, "Right now, we must do what's best for you. You're not well and you need all the help you can get."

"I thought I had no biotics... Are you angry with me, about what I did?"

"The only people mama Shino and I should be angry with are mama Shino and I. We thought you had no biotic affinity, that you didn't care for it and didn't want to bother with it. All asari have biotics, but not all asari care for it. We should have enrolled you in a few early biotic classes so you would be at least a little prepared, but even then it wouldn't have done you much good. What happened in the end was no one's fault."

The place shifted to the examination room moments before Ellyon's involuntary discharge. Liara started to say something, but Ellyon made a hushing sound, "No... I remember all of it, mum. I.. I was looking at myself too, but not like now... Just look?"

Liara grabbed her daughter a little tighter and a warm, almost angelic feeling came over her. She realised that Ellyon was sharing how she felt at that very moment. A feeling of being so utterly complete it overwhelmed all her senses. Then a flash and all of it was gone but a warm fuzzy feeling, an overriding desire to fall asleep. And then that feeling was gone too. Liara felt empty and a little violated that the completeness was ripped away from her. She lifted her head and look at her daughter's face. Ellyon was just staring off in the distance, enjoying being so close with her mother.

Liara jolted when Ellyon suddenly spoke, "If I learn how to control it, I'll will only have the memory... They'll teach me how to be not me..."

Liara softly rocked Ellyon from right to left while she noticed they were in the park again. She wondered how Ellyon had taken control of the sharing and was steering it like a matriarch would. Could it be an effect of Ellyon's autism? Why was it suddenly surfacing now? Liara blinked a few times. She figured that she would probably never get answers to those questions. Even Dr Pol admitted to having not all the answers to Ellyon's condition even though the good doctor almost suffocated herself analyzing the information she did have.

"You'll have to learn how to control it, otherwise the pains will do more damage and eventually you'll die from that. I understand why you want to keep that feeling though."

Ellyon stirred, she felt uncomfortable about something, "I.. I'm afraid that one day I won't know how I felt... And that I just will live without remembering how it feels to be... to be.."

"Complete?", Liara offered.

Ellyon was just staring off in the distance again.

"When I was prenant with you, it was almost what you had experienced. Then something went wrong and you had to brought into the world too soon. I felt so lonely after that, I could only cry. And sometimes when I remember that, I feel lonely again. I will never be pregnant like that again, even if I wanted to. But we're not just that, we're much more. I guess you must turn to your strengths and rely on them to fill in for the parts of you that are missing."

Ellyon didn't react to what Liara had told her and seemed to be content with just sitting there, leaning back at her mother and being softly rocked from side to side. Liara didn't want it to end. While rocking her daughter, she looked at child-Liara digging ever deeper.

_You can stop digging, Liara. Your biggest treasure isn't buried in the ground..._

They were back in Einsteinian space.

Liara froze up when she was violently cast from the sharing, but Ellyon just stirred a little and tried to cling on to her mother a little tighter. Liara looked around, confused like. Dr Pol, sitting next to her told her to calm down, it was just a Mass-Relay jump afterall.

"Dr Pol, how much time has passed?"

Marva Pol pulled an amazed face, "No time at all, we jumped a Mass-Relay, Dr T'Soni. Are you all right?"

Liara shook her head to clear her mind, "I guess I'm a little out of it...", Liara looked at her daughter and wanted to say something to her, but the shock of looking at Ellyon's sedated and vacant face stopped her. Instead, she gingerly hoisted Ellyon a bit deeper into her lap and kissed her softly on the head where two scalpplates met at the base. Liara wanted to be back in the park where Ellyon wasn't sedated and totally zoned to oblivion.

_I know you've accepted all of it already, my little wing. Whatever just happened and how you did it.., I just hope that you'll remember it like I will._


	19. Granny in the left field

"Mistress Ellyon sounded unhappy and distressed, mistress.", Glyph stated as he followed Liara around her new apartment in down-town Almari, "Shall I send her a 'My Fist Pony' points-voucher courtesy of Shadow Broker Interstellar?"

"That's thoughtful, Glyph, but mistress Ellyon won't be helped with a voucher. Sometimes, you have to step back and hope that people step up for themselves.", returned Liara but she wasn't really sure she believed it herself. The people working hard for Ellyon, with Dr. Marva Pol at the forefront, were doing everything they could think of, but they too had little to work with. How do you make someone who can only discharge biotic level, not actually do biotics, discharge safely? The principle wasn't even the same. Dr. Pol, with all her knowledge and experience, was just as new at it as everybody else was, including Ellyon.

"I see.", said Glyph and took to hovering near the ceiling.

Liara sighed and looked at the unopened boxes in the middle of her living-room. Three weeks in and all she had been able to do was to set up her vidwall information center in her study and make her bedroom sleep ready. News of Ellyon's condition had trickled down the list of friends and tokens of their support that came in the form of cards from Kasumi to Zaeed were haphazardly taped to a wall to liven the place up a bit. There was even a card from Jacob, who had seen his own daughter coming into her own and joining the Alliance. But on the whole, Liara's apartment was a mess.

Liara took a few deep breaths and opened the first box she let her eye fall on. It didn't matter much which box she opened, it looked like Shinobu had just grabbed Liara's stuff by the armful and seemed to have randomly dumped the load over a score of open boxes. It stung Liara to see her stuff so manhandled. She was glad she didn't collect porcelain ballerinas or other figurines human women loved to collect and display. None of it would've have survived the move.

Liara wasn't the type to have collectables or displayables. Most of her possessions were things she used for her shadow-brokering and scientific pursuits. She had a weak spot for earth fashion and sneakers (Sneakers! GASP!) but other than that, she owned surprisingly little that would support her girly appearance. She rummaged around in the box and came up with a little box wrapped in a tell-tale boutique gift-wrapper. Liara smiled. She knew instantly what it was inside that wrapper. A bottle of Olor d'Asia. In her mind's eye, she saw Shinobu angrily dumping her stuff in the boxes, only to feel guilty about it and then rushing off to the store to buy a bottle of, rather expensive, perfume.

Love meant something to Shinobu Liara couldn't rightly understand. From the moment Liara had first met Shinobu she had felt it. Her first meeting with a human being, while being trapped in that force-field was awkward on many levels. First, of course, her embarrassment of getting trapped in a Prothean device... miss self-proclaimed Prothean expert, stuck in a Prothean force-field for days, but there was also the feeling that she had that Shinobu wanted to rip the clothes from her body and animalistically have her way with her. Liara was irresistibly drawn to Shinobu but it still took them three years of making two steps forward and taking one step back to finally agree that they should just give up and let it happen.

Even if Shinobu's lovemaking was veritable spousal abuse, something Liara had a love-hate relationship with, Liara wondered if she would ever meet someone, maybe even centuries from now, who would love so deeply as Shinobu did. Shinobu really was helpless. With no enemy to shoot at, her home was her alternative battlefield where she would try to prove herself over and over again and always feel like she was fighting a losing battle.

Liara's love for Shinobu was no less genuine, but it was also tempered and ponderous, evolved to last for centuries. Liara contemplated love and made it tangible with the occasional 'embrace eternity', Shinobu's love was something Shinobu had to share lest it consumed her. And Shinobu shared hard.

"You can smell the scent through the packaging.", she whispered while she held the present to her nose and inhaled deeply.

"I used to give Benezia deodorant. It offended her and she would tell me I was missing the point, but hey, deodorant is perfume too."

Liara jumped almost out of her skin, "Goddess! Civilized asari knock!", she started as she turned around to face the person that had spoken last, "Even matriarchs raised by a krogan and a disheveled asari commando."

"Ah, the halcyon days of uneven asari families where at least one of the parents a total pain in the ass in all the bad ways, even sideways. All of us relive the sins of our fore-bearers, don't we?", spoke matriarch Aetytha in her own unique way, "I heard you fled back to where it all began too and I was expecting you would invite me over, but it dawned on me that I would have to touch the krogan in the qauds and gracefully force myself upon my daughter. So, here I am."

"How did you eve-, don't answer that. Glyph let you in.", Liara shook her head. Glyph had no concept of welcome or unwelcome family. The VI would open the door to anyone who was direct family or Liara's circle of personal friends. Including Aria T'Loak, Liara feared.

"Now, now. Don't you think that you should accept the fact that you have two parents? Beni was able to do a lot of things, but impregnating herself with the help of just the goddess was not one of them. And how were Beni and I to know our offspring would one day save the galaxy? I admit to feeling a bit small."

"So now, after scurrying off to goddess knows where before I was old enough to remember you and do something krogan that would make you proud, you want to be a part of my life before your undoubtedly rich and fulfilling life as a bartender for 1000 years comes to an end?"

"Somewhere between all that bartendering and other important asari past-times, I loved a special asari well enough to father you. If only Beni wasn't so embarrassed with me, the poor woman couldn't take me to any of her up-city social gatherings,", matriarch Aetytha moved into the half-open kitchen and opened a few cupboards, "I don't suppose you have some of those hip drinks the kids of today run away with? I would love to try something my granddaughter quaffs."

"Seriously? You want to try something Ellyon drinks? She loves strawberry yoghurt-drink, but I didn't import any yet. Ellyon isn't allowed to come over for the weekends yet. It would spoil."

"Such a human way of looking at it, tsk. If you can ferment it, you can drink it, my daughter. Speaking of humans, where is that fetching wife of yours?"

Liara looked at the boxes and at the gift-wrapped perfume in her hands, "Back on earth... reliving the sins of our fore-bearers, I guess."

Matriarch Aetytha browsed through the fridge with a disapproving frown on her face, "Keep that woman close, my dear, she transcends what I would call winter-comfort. Leave her alone too long and someone else will run off with her. What have we got here? Almari Purple, latest harvest... So sophisticated... Beni used to 'taste-drink' it, if you feel me. Curl up on the couch with a datapad and a fragile longstilted glass with just the correct measure of Almari Purple. I tried it once, but I wasn't impressed with it, just felt under-intoxicated. Where did you put the glass-ware, dear?"

"Maybe you could stop yourself from getting plastered before midday and tell me what it really is you came her for?"

"Ladies like us become pleasantly sociable, dear, not plastered. Nevermind, I found something worthy of pouring a correct measure in. Interesting style for earthen-work, colorful and with text. Best mum in the world. Oh, the irony will not be lost on you, I wager.", Aetytha liberally measured correctly in the easy way of someone who poured drinks for a living. Liara was a bit offended at seeing such a nice wine poured in a coffee-mug like it was little more than mouthwater to follow a good teeth-brushing, but Aetytha, if anything, was a formidable force in her own way, "I'm just being a motherly father-figure, dear. Why would I spend my days looking at a picture of you while I can look at the real deal? You have my face, you know? That baby-fat will not go away until you're 700. By that time I had painted Illium red at least double that. You have Beni's scalpplates, do you know. To see pedastrianism mixed with careful breeding, that's pureblood for you."

Liara smiled despite her irritation at Aetytha's presence. The matriarch was indeed a much older version of Liara. Maybe that was what Liara irritated so much. Or maybe it was because Ellyon could be just as brazen. No, Aetytha's demeanor was not thoughtless brazenness. It only seemed like the elderly woman was just talking, but Liara knew full well that Aetytha was talking with the echo of centuries. And all those centuries, even if they had done nothing to dull Aetytha's boldness, piled up in the woman somewhere.

"I knew it had to do with me being a pureblood, you and mum breaking up. You left mum to deal with your shame and left her to raise me alone because of it."

Matriarch Aetytha laughed. It sounded pleasant and if her voice wouldn't have been ruined by centuries of drinking and exotic dancing in shady smoky clubs, it would've sounded eerily like the way Liara could laugh, "Oh no, dear. Is that what Beni told you? I left because we decided that was the best for you. Beni was sophisticated, a true rose of Thessia! Whereas I'm a little rough around the scalpplates and two boobs short of a quad. Had I taken you with me, you would be right now bungling from a pole somewhere thinking you were doing asari traditional dance. Beni raised you into a fine young woman who can choose to be whatever she want. Now, if you want to, you can still bungle from a pole somewhere, but at least you know that if it doesn't work out, you can return to writing about Protheans."

Liara took a seat on stool at the dinnerbar and looked at Aetytha, who was holding the mug like she was holding a hot drink, leisurely leaning against the kitchen-counter. Liara turned Shinobu's present around in her hands, "So, in the end we relive the sins of our fore-bearers."

"Until somewhere down the line in our illustrious dynasty, two people get it right and deliver little blue children to the world without the need of an annotated standard work. But following in the path of the trailblazers before you is a choice, dear. I'm sure Beni was a little miffed at you becoming a historian, so you are doing it right. Don't lose sight of the earthling and be there for your daughter and you've already done more right than I ever did. On that note, why don't you show me some pictures of your family. I feel so left out at times."

Liara showed Aetytha her family photos and answered to Aetytha's questions. Hours flew by and Aetytha burned through a bottle of Almari Purple or two, but Liara's irratation at her mother went away. Aetytha was only given pause when the talk came to Ellyon and her condition.

"Oh, the poor girl. Who would wish Sarat-Zashi on a cutie like that. Is that why she isn't allowed to be with you on the weekends? I don't really see the problem though, if you ask me straight up. You need only look out of your window to see that the same mistakes are being made again, it could do with a good biotic explosion."

"No, mum-", Liara adruptly stopped talking, but a light smile was on Aetytha's face. Aetytha made a 'go-on' gesture with a small nod of her head. Liara gave an apologetic smile and continued, "...mum, Ellyon can't get her body to bleed her biotic level without retaining some of it. Essentially, she isn't bleeding the level fast enough, causing her to have an epileptic episode during which her body expels the level with brute force. That's what sets her apart from the Sarat-Zashi. She must learn to control the build up and discharge safely, but there's no way to do biotics with the body. At least, not a way her teachers have found, anyway."

"I think Ellyon is just stubborn, just like you. I think that your daughter needs a krogan boot up the ass, gently of course, long enough to see the world like non-autistic people do, if only for a few seconds."

"I don't think threatening with krogan battlemasters will help."

"Oh, I'm sure, Dr. Pol's bruteforcing Ellyon with hypothermia is making all the difference, dear. As skanky as Dr. Pol is, really, only a mother can love that shadow of an asari, as Dr. Pol is, she is on the right track with that hypothermia idea, but she's making all the wrong moves in connecting with our little treasure. And, off course, who is talking about scary krogan battlemasters? How about a harmless and frail matriarch who might have seen one centuries ago?"


	20. Control, synthesis and, uhm, destruction

Matriarch Sarina Pol was seated at her desk and skimmed the nightwatch' report. It was the usual fare, Binta couldn't sleep again, Aila was watching vids under de blankets again, Jolane was caught trying to sneak into the kitchen again, most girls just slept soundly and the new student, as the girls in the institute were officially named, slept naked on top of the bedcovers. But she slept like a rock.

Matriarch Sarina was glowing that the institute was given the chance to enroll a non Ardat-Yakshi into the program. If it worked out, it would pave the way to having more students with various problems and their slogan "Helping asari overcome" would finally bear testament.

What a coup it would be for the FSM if they could show that they really meant their philosophy. To move forward from traditional thinking, liberating those who were different instead of imprisoning them and beating them down. Not instilling fear for themselves in their students, but lifting them up, show them that they were worth it, to the world, but most importantly to themselves. For the sake of themselves!

Matriarch Sarina really believed in it. Not as a political belief, like her centuries younger sister Marva Pol did, but a real deep heartfelt belief that all asari deserved to be asari, as equals, fear and prejudice cast aside, goddess! All asari in the greater asari expanse holding hands in friendship and trust!

That was the new power with which the asari would rise from the ashes of the reaper war. Rise like a phoenix, but better, complete! No more caste like division into maiden, matron and matriarch. True unity coming from shedding the close-minded thinking that had led the asari to making the greatest mistake they had ever made, withholding the beacon hidden away in a statue of the goddess in her most important temple here on Thessia.

Ellyon Rannoch Tuchanka Shepard-T'Soni. A name so full of promise, of freedom and reclaiming and with such a history of staunch defiance, matriarch Sarina almost fainted when her sister contacted her to ask if her institute could handle the burden of caring for a Sarat-Zashi. Ellyon was even one of the many names the goddess herself answered to and, as matriarch had learned, it was the feminine version of Elion, one of the many names a human god answered to. Born from the two paragons of the asari and human species, Ellyon R.T. Shepard-T'Soni could be nothing more than a stigmata of two faiths made flesh! Off course the institute could handle that.

Matriarch Sarina held Ellyon's bio to her chest and was lost in the opportunity of it all, the greatness, the providence, th-

"Sarina, if that smile becomes any larger, you can park an alpha-varren sideways in it."

"I can't help myself, Aetytha, every morning I count the many blessings resting upon the institute, embodied by our students and then I just know that we're doing it right this time. I'm glad you're interrupting my train of thought however, I was getting carried away."

Aetytha strolled into Sarina's office and sat herself down in a visitor's chair on the other side of Sarina's desk, "So tell me, dear friend, what are you doing right this time?"

Sarina was a bit taken aback. Aetytha, mother of the pureblood paragon and a FSM sympathizer if you listened to her words, after censoring out the foulmouthedness, knew it full well. The two elderly women went back a long way, from when they were both still maidens dancing for tips on Omega pre-Aria. The adventures they had together! Then they had lost sight of eachother for centuries only to meet again on Thessia after the reaper war. Sarina had come back to rebuild, throwing her lot in with the FSM, but what Aetytha's reasons were was anybody's guess. She had just appeared, took out a lease on one of the newly build apartments on the outskirts of the Almari nightlife district and just continued doing whatever it was she enjoyed doing.

As Sarina talked about how the FSM was helping the Ardat-Yakshi, Aetytha took up datapads from the desk and browsed the reports stored on them. Sarina had no secrets, the institute was open, transparent! Only truly sensitive information about her students were eyes-only to the staff, a student's parents and herself. And Aethyta was a well known multi-tasker. Famous for pouring drinks to a lot of people while listening to the lifestory of a lost soul nursing a drink on the far end of the tap. It was just that nonchalant way in which Aetytha did things and carried herself that most people took for aloofness bordering on the disrespectful. If Aetytha cared for it, she didn't show it.

"Do you really care that much, Sarina? Then set the punters free, send them home and really become the broad institute you envision. If you fail, just change the sign outside to read "Academy for Exotic Dance" and you'll be back on your feet in no time at all."

Sarina rose from her chair and pushed away from the desk to move to a window. As she looked at the world outside she spoke, "I can't do that, Aetytha."

"Because...?"

"Because my stu-."

"Because they're still Ardat-Yakshi, who can be dangerous if they want to and from which the world must be shielded because we fear them more than we fear a krogan charge. So we still lock them away out of fear they may succumb to becoming sexual predators who devour the essence of their bedding partners. And goddess forbid should the Justicars become jobless, off course."

"Aetytha, the institute works for them, the students! Our students are asari, like us, with us. We teach them selfworth, give them a purpose, they are shown they're not monsters, we're doing good here, Aetytha, good!"

"This institute is just another monastery, Sarina. You changed names and method, but not the goal. You're still holding girls hostage to something they might do and in doing so, you're sentencing them to life-long imprisonment for something they haven't done. All what this institute shows is that the more things change, the more they stay the same."

"Aetytha! Our students are-"

"Asari like us, dear friend?", Aetytha paused a moment for Sarina to say something, but the matriarch was at a loss for words. Aetytha followed through, "I thought so, now be a good girl and tell me where I can find my granddaughter, before your institute destroys her mind. The poor thing is autistic enough without you quacks helping her along."

"Dr. Pol and her team are working with her in bathing-room two, but those are closed sessions, Aetytha, you can't-"

"Oh, I very well can and I very well will. Ellyon is being sacrificed on your sister's altar of incompetence for three weeks now, dear friend. It is that I chance visited my daughter yesterday, otherwise I wouldn't be aware of it. All that maiden-talk got her to hand over her sick daughter to your care and you achieved absolutely nothing, your sister is flip-flopping like a dying fish on dry land and my granddaughter is not a step closer to getting the help she needs.", Aetytha rose from her chair and took a few steps towards matriarch Sarina, "I can forgive my daughter because she only wants what is best for my granddaughter. She wants that so bad she's risking her partnership with the very lovable human woman. But I won't forgive a bunch of squeeling maidens calling themselves FSM and muck about hoping that no one notices they are as clueless as the next asari. It's a good thing I'm here to set the record straight, even though I dislike being so direct. Well, I'm glad we had this talk, dear friend, so nice to meet familiar faces in prisons like this. It makes the place less... desolate, shall we say?"

Matriarch Aetytha left matriarch Sarina behind in her office and strolled deeper into the institute. Aetytha did not waste time thinking about what had happened in that office. It was done, she had spoken her mind and that was that. So on her way to bathing-room two she came past a young asari who was reading a data-pad with, to Aetytha, a way too serious look on her face.

"My, are you the serious one, dear.", Aetytha said without pre-amble.

The asari looked up from her data-pad with a 'buzz-off' look, but quickly corrected herself, "Matriarch! I'm sorry, I meant no disrespect. Are you the new chaperone for the afternoon free hours?"

"Me, a chaperone? Hah! Sarina would die from the indignity. No dear, I'm on my way to see what havoc I can cry before midday. I can't help noticing that serious look on a face so young so I was asking myself what you could be reading that would trouble you so."

"Oh, I'm studying the Illium Riots of 400 years ago, matriarch. I can't believe that the 'secret asari' organized it all on her own."

"The 'secret asari'? Is that what they call that scheming cookie nowadays? Well, I guess that in her own way, she earned her place in history. She didn't work alone back then, dear, she had the help of a very dashing volus called Porta Jon.", Aetytha padded the young asari on the shoulder and strolled along.

"Matriarch, wait! I get the joke!", the young asari laughed, "But do you know who the 'secret asari' is?"

Aetytha slowed her stroll and gave the young asari an over the shoulder smile, "It was a long time ago, dear, her name had to do with music... Symphony? Melody? Aria? It doesn't matter anymore.", and with that, Aetytha rounded a corner, leaving a puzzled asari behind.

_Ah, Porta... History is so cruel with you volus heroes, but I have to hand it to you old friend. You are remembered as you saw yourself, as a cosmic joke..._

Aetytha halted before a door that sported a plaque reading 'Bathing-room 2'. There was little red light blinking above the doorknob, signaling that the door was locked from the inside. Aetytha wondered briefly upon the functionality of locks in a society where it's members could destroy entire buildings with nothing but their minds and the right amount of boredom.

_Well, let's behold Pol's altar of incompetence.., and set free the sacrifice._

Just around Aetytha's right hand did a little biotic field spring up...


	21. Carrots and sticks

**[It's been a while since I last updated Humasari. I've been busy with my health and several bouts of surgery. Also, I have been focusing on my Walking Dead fiction. You'll see that the style from here on out is very different from the earlier chapters. I've learned a lot writing-wise. Anyway, enjoy this new chapter to Humasari.]**

_The story sofar: Shinobu Shepard is a commando-specced soldier and a fruit-loop, Liara is her plucky self, Aria is lovably evil, Aetytha is everybody's favorite granny and Ellyon is just plain dangerous._

**1**

"Aetytha, wait!", a slender blue hand took Aethyta's, "Are they in there?"

Aetytha looked at the hand that had grabbed hers and followed the arm upwards to see the face of the asari that had spoken. There was no surprise in Aetytha's voice when she spoke, "Oh hello, dear. Did you know they call you the 'secret asari' now? Off course you do. It must have cost you some effort to get Porta Jon stricken from history. You haven't changed at all, dear. Still going everywhere you're not supposed to go. But you were always the adventurous one, I guess."

Aria T'loak scoffed and let go of Aetytha's hand, "It's good to see you, Aetytha, you can take that for what it's worth. Why are you butting in anyway?"

"You're mistaken, dear. I'm not butting in at all. I'm merely planning on checking in on my granddaughter and maybe cause Dr. Pol slight discomfort. My daughter, I fear, is so focused on getting help for my granddaughter that she fails to see the danger of the help that is being done."

Aria rubbed her forehead in her characteristic manner, always slightly annoyed, "Shepard would never have agreed to this. I can tell you right now that T'soni and Pol had her outgunned. So I'm going to rescue my niece and take her with me to Omega."

"I see you have given it some thought, dear.", Aetytha observed dryly, "Where in time did you delude yourself into thinking Ellyon is your niece?"

"I'm an aunt to her. I'm her auntie Aria.", Aria spoke surprisingly passionate.

"Aria, dear, Ellyon isn't your daughter. Her passing was surely a tragedy and I can't presume to understand what you must have gone through-"

"-Don't patronize me, Aetytha. Shepard helped me reclaiming Omega from Cerberus and now I helping Shepard reclaiming her daughter."

"I'm sure my daughter's wife knows about your rescue-operation?"

"She... doesn't. Why are we even fighting over this, Aetytha? I shouldn't even ask, my sources tell me you're a FSM-sympathizer. You're blind if you can't see that they're some azure version of Cerberus."

"I share your suspicions, dear, but in the meantime, they're trying to do good. I'd like to give them a chance and I'll be the first one to storm the barricades when they even think of Cerberus. I'm sure you remember Illium."

"All you did on Illium was hiding behind the furniture trying not spill your booze. Are we going in or not? Goddess, I'm going to kick down that door."

"Goddess?", Aetytha spoke in surprise.

"What? Am I too evil for that?", asked Aria while loosening her muscles in preparation of her resolve to kick down a door.

"No, dear. I'm just surprised to hear you invoke the Goddess. We've known eachother since our hundreths and I can't remember you ever doing that before. But if you have found some strength in the old faith, I won't judge you for it. Now, before you go all earthling and violent, shall I open the door with a light touch of applied biotics?"

**2**

Ellyon was cold to the bone. She shook violently and clenched her teeth to stop them from clattering. How many times had see been in this ice-bath now the last three weeks? Ellyon couldn't remember. She was so cold she couldn't think straight.

Marva Pol was giving it her all, but she failed to connect with Ellyon, who in turn wasn't meeting Pol half way. Ellyon had tried, but Pol ignored the girl's attempts, convinced as she was that they were on the right track if only Ellyon would work with her.

Pol had taken a leave of absence from the Rogue Biotic Response-team to help Ellyon and her intent was pure at first, but her ear was leaning towards the FSM. Helping Ellyon could mean so much more for the FSM than just a show of righteous asarinism. Born on Earth and thus an Earthling first as far as Earth laws were concerned, in two short years Ellyon would be Earth-legal. An adult, allowed to vote and expected to have adult views and convictions. A frightingly powerful counter-biotic (The new scientific term for Sarat-Zashi Pol had successfully coined in her preliminary paper.), in their camp would certainly silence the FSM's political enemies.

And Ellyon was indeed extremely powerful. Able to release an insane amount of newtons in the most violent way, Ellyon wrecked an entire alliance forces hospital, causing death and destruction on a scale unprecedented for a single biotic attack in asari history. Though Pol was the one to remind Liara that the Alliance would soon realise that Ellyon was a bio-weapon, the pressure from within the FSM was slowly making her understand the potential of having such a bio-weapon for themselves. And if that bio-weapon was joining their cause out of free will, who would blame the FSM when the bodyparts start flying?

All they had to do was to provide Ellyon with care, education and a safe place to live for now, her gratitude for it would seal the future. At least, that was what the FSM hoped. Forcing her to join the FSM would be foolish; there was nothing they could do against a counter-biotic of Ellyon's magnitude.

If only they could help Ellyon to get it under control. That was the one hurdle everyone was locking brain with. Biotics area function of the brain. Able to tap into a flow of energy that is a concept more than a tangible, biotics could shape and direct that energy offensively and defensively. The Sarat-Zashi are different in that they have brains that are intolerant of their biotic level. As Sarat-Zashi typically show no biotic affinity, the brain bleeds the biotic level by pushing it into the body and their body channels it away by expending it through normal daily activity. That's to say, the body uses it as a fuel, like it does with food. Sadly, Sarat-Zashi are unable to bleed all of it, retaining some biotic-level in their bodies. Since there is no way to do biotics with the body, purely because the Sarat-Zashi are incredibly rare and most of those were never recognized as Sarat-Zashi, the Sarat-Zashi is like a living timebomb. The body still experiences the biotic-level as foreign and as long as the level is bled, all is fine. The build up of the residual level causes extreme distress resulting in the body violently attempting to bleed the residual build up, killing the Sarat-Zashi in the most gruesome way.

Ellyon is unique in that repect, she is the first known Sarat-Zashi to actually being able to purge the biotic-level in her body without harm to herself. Pol had discovered that Ellyon even actively, though unconsiously, sought out situations that would cause stress, anger or fear, in an attempt to fall into an epileptic episode which would cause her body to purge the entire level in one big expanding ball of force of an enormous amount of newtons. Since Ellyon sought out these situations, it is only logical to assume that Ellyon could be helped to find a way that would allow her to discharge safely, probably at a daily basis. But Pol was getting nowhere.

"P-please...", Ellyon stammered, "I-I want my mums..."

Pol looked at her assistants, who were as desperate as she was. Pol deeply disliked what they were doing. She felt like a monster, or like a torturer in one of those earth-vids about a world-war she had once seen. Pol was a true MD, doing harm was totally not her intent. But a numb body loses much of its power and if Ellyon would succeed in discharging on her own, the force of that discharge would be muffled as a result of hyperthermia. Until Ellyon would be able to use the level in her body as a biotic would, instead of violently purging it in one go, Pol saw no other solution than hypothermia. Pol found it distasteful and heartbreaking and after three weeks, her assistants were also becoming rather apprehensive to keep subjecting Ellyon to ice-baths.

"Ellyon, please, help us help you. Try to discharge, even a little tremor is good."

Suddenly, under loud commotion, the door broke from it's lock...

**3**

"That's what I think of your applied biotics, Aethyta.", Aria said deeply satisfied, "Earthling violence is extremely gratifying." Aetytha gave Aria a disapproving look, "It's suitably barbaric, dear. Some situations however ask for a deft touch and refined politeness." Aria shook her head and actually smiled at Aetytha, "I really hate you sometimes, Aetytha. It's hard to believe that we once traveled together as BFFs."

Aetytha gave Aria a puzzled look and then she understood, "Oh, that's an earth word, isn't it, best friends forever. I'm flattered, dear. But isn't that word popular with the younger girls?"

Aria huffed at Aetytha, "If you would actually answer your OT when Ellyon tries to call you, you'd know that everyone can use it."

Pol politely coughed and said, "Why are you two matriarchs disturbing a closed session?"

Aetytha blocked Aria who was starting at Pol, "Pol, dear, do not utter the word matriarch in the vincinity of my friend. She's very sensitive when it comes to her... youth and despite her.. tender years, her reave-ability is acutely deadly.", Aetytha turned to Aria, "Aria, dear, why don't you fish Ellyon from that bath while I talk to ? It seems like the best way to make sure everybody lives." Aria nodded and Pol supressed a shudder when the intimidating asari crime-queen pushed past her. Directly after that, Pol found herself looking in the friendly face of Aetytha, but that didn't make her feel better. Not really.

"Well, dear,", Aetytha started in her well known prelude to an ego-shattering monologue, ".., I'm sure you mean well, intelligent as you are, but this display of professional ineptitude has carried on long enough. You've abused my daughter's trust, you're abusing my daughter's daughter and you have my daughter's wife checkmate, but my granddaughter has quite an extended family. I need only hint at a sentient alliance frigate affectionately known as Normandy. Trust me on this, dear, you don't want to disappoint an aunt like that. Aria and myself are by far the least of your worries. Nevertheless, we children of a lesser Goddess are becoming a bit agitated with your bruteforcing a defenseless girl using barbaric torture. So, without wishing to ignore your good intent, I would invite you to look at my hand and notice that the biotic-field is quite localized. I'm absolutely convinced of your ability to acutely understand what this means and where this is going, so you're very wise to dismiss yourself."

Pol found herself standing outside the bathroom, not quite sure of what just had happened. Her assistants had already fled the bathroom at first opportunity and were positively scared out of their skulls and awkwardly giving eachother terrified looks. Aria T'Loak was angry and they survived to tell about it... If there was one point in an asari's life to drastically go and find something else to do, that must have been it right there.

Matriarch Sarina Pol came hurrying down the hall, alarmed to the disturbance. She already feared that Aetytha's involvement wouldn't be going down smoothly, but it sounded like someone was breaking the furniture. Sarina saw her sister and her assistants standing in the hall, some of them obviously counting their lucky stars, "Marva, what is going on? Who is in there with Ellyon Shepard-T'soni? Aetytha would never do this!"

Marva looked at Sarina with honest fear in her eyes, "Aria T'loak is in there too.., she thinks that she's Ellyon's aunt..."

**4**

Ellyon tightly embraced Aria, trying to soak in as much of the woman's bodyheat as possible, while enjoying the vigorous backrub she was receiving. Aria was doing her best to rub some warmth into Ellyon using a fluffy towel while making soothing noises.

"Aria, dear, would you mind if I took some OT-snapshots of this moment?", Aetytha asked, "People will be amazed to see your maternal side and it suits you."

"Yes, I mind.", Aria answered, "I have a reputation to uphold."

"That reputation is creating a dark blue spot on Ellyon's back, dear. Why don't we wrap her in a bunch of towels and let her thaw out the rest by herself?"

"N-no, this is nice.", Ellyon said with a voice that vibrated in the rythm of Aria's rubbing, "Auntie Aria is as soft as mama Liara."

"Too much information.", Aria decided. She draped the towel over Ellyon's shoulders, who was protesting Aria's decision to stop the backrub, but Aria lifted a finger at her, "I'm on to you, you little cheat."

Matriarch Sarina choose that moment to enter the bathroom, "Aria, Aetytha, what's going on? And why is my medical staff glad they're still alive? I need some answers before I call the Almari-PD."

"Oh, great.", Aria sighed, "The gang is complete..."

Aetytha smiled, "Somehow I knew you were trying to avoid Sarina, dear. Is it so bad that the three of us are in one room again? We haven't been together in over four hundred years, you should be delighted."

"As a varren in a fightpit, I assure you.", Aria grunted.

"Now, now, dear, we didn't part from Illium in the best of ways, but four hundred years is a bit long to keep a crutch alive. Aria, be a good girl and say hello to your other BFF."

Aria face turned dark as she greeted Sarina with a chilled hello. Sarina returned a wary smile and looked at Ellyon, "Is our student alright?"

"I'm fine...", Ellyon said, "I don't understand what's going on..."

"Pol is a stupid woman who would've gotten you killed had Aetytha and I not intervered.", Aria spoke matter of factly, "And if they can't help you, we'll help you. You're coming with us and we'll find you the best doctors credits can buy."

"I want to stay here, auntie Aria, I like it here. They have a modern dance course and you should see the gymnastics hall! The teachers are nice too..."

Sarina couldn't help herself, "You see, Aetytha, we're doing good here. Our students are free to select their studies. We help, Aetytha, we're truly helping this time."

"Sarina, dear, you're overlooking one important aspect. I've been doing some extranet-surfing based on something I heard my daughter say. Ellyon will be earth-legal in a few years and that makes her an adult, and since she's not Ardat-Yakshi, you won't be able to keep her if she wants to go. Ellyon has a choice, the other girls.., not so much. I do think they look onto this institute as a prison. A well funded prison, but a prison none the less."

Sarina blinked, "But Ellyon is an asari!"

Aria grinned, "Not according to earth-law. According to that law, all beings born on earth are for all intent and purpose to be considered earthling, granted earth rights, priveleges and duties that are not alienable, unless the parents are otherworldly and have expressed the desire at birth that the child is not to be registered on earth. My sources tell me Ellyon is registered on earth and that makes her an earthling.", Aria patted Sarina on the shoulder and gave the woman her iconic smile, "She's not an asari by law."

Aetytha took a knee next to Ellyon and took one of Ellyon's long and squishy scalpplates between two gentle fingers, "But if you want to stay, dear, and trust in the wisdom of the FSM, you might not get the help you need."

"I know how to do it, grandma, I really do. I tried to do it at night in my room, but I can't visualise it.. I tried to tell , but she wouldn't listen..."

"That's it. Say good bye to your sister, Sarina.", Aria said through clenched teeth.

"Aria.", was all Aetytha said. But she said it such a way that Aria calmed down.

"I'll show you what I mean, let me get my bite-stick.", Ellyon said, happy that she finally was in the company of people who actually had asked her what she wanted.

"Bite-stick?", Aria asked, "What are you needing a bite-stick for?"

Ellyon looked at the floor, "I-it hurts and I have to concentrate so hard... It helps if I bite down on something... I made the stick in arts&crafts, with engravings. But I'm going to make a new one, with better engravings and carving-art. I'll be right back!", with that, Ellyon bolted out of the bathroom.

"Ellyon, you're only wearing... a... towel...", Aria's voice trailed, "Just like Shepard."

"It took Beni and I a while to impart the importance of clothes on Liara.", Aetytha remarked, "Be that as it may, she has a few millennia ahead of her in which she'll be wearing clothes all day."

Sarina wrung her hands, "I've talked with the poor thing so often over the last three weeks, but she never told anything about this.., I didn't even know that it hurts her..."

"Why would she tell you?", Aria bit, "None of you listened."

Aetytha shook her head at Aria, who just returned an annoyed look. Sarina just stood there wringing her hands. They waited for Ellyon to return without speaking another word to eachother...


	22. Be like Shepard

**1**

Liara ran. Headmaster Pol's vidcall had been very alarming and confusing. Aetytha was at the FSM-institute and causing a scene, destroying the furniture. Liara couldn't believe that her mother would do such a thing. What was going on over there? It made no sence at all. The FSM was helping Ellyon to the best of their abilities and Liara was sure Aetytha had understood that.

Crossing the plaza at which the institute was located, Liara didn't bother avoiding the asari that were leisurely strolling around. She just pushed them out of her way and kept running. Liara was close to clearing a path using her shockwave, but she was Liara and not Aria T'loak. Liara saw beyond the use of her abilities and the prospect of being served several legal papers in the days after kept her in check. Still, her bulldozing of the plaza left behind a good many angry asari. But at least that could be smoothed over with some official apologies and some gifts courtesy of Shadow Broker Interstellar. Liara didn't had the illusion that no one had recognized her yet. While no soul in the universe knew that Liara was in fact the Shadow Broker, apart from those privy to her, they knew she was the public face of the company. Liara was sure that whatever would come of out of knocking asari to the ground, she would be able to handle it.

Crashing through the entrance of the institute, Liara skidded to a stop and looked around. came running towards her, with her assistants in her wake, and she looked particularly distressed.

"Dr.T'soni!", was all Pol could manage to say when she was close to Liara, "Dr.T'soni!"

Liara looked at Pol, "Worthless.", Liara concluded and regretted it immedeately. Sometimes, Liara just couldn't help herself and lost sight of her manners, "I... I'm sorry, Marva. But why are you here and not at my daughter's side? No, strike that. Bring me to my daughter."

"Aria T'loak...", Pol panted and Liara returned a quizzical look, "My daughter keeps a good friendship with Aria T'loak, we don't like it much, but Aria's motives regarding Ellyon are that of an interested family-member. However odd that may sound."

"I see... that explains Aria T'loak's presence then.", Pol said musingly.

"Wait, Aria is here too?"

"Yes, she came with matriarch Aetytha, who also seems to think she's family of Ellyon."

"Aetytha is my mother.", Liara facepalmed. All of this was going south in a burning trainwreck. Why couldn't her life be normal? Why couldn't Shinobu's life be normal? Why couldn't Ellyon's life be normal?

"WHY THE AZURE CAN'T EVERYTHING GO RIGHT FOR ONCE?"

Pol took a few steps back. Liara was not just any asari. She was a hero of the reaper-war, fighting side by side with icons like Shepard, Vas Normandy, Vakarian, Williams... and that was only a few names of the legends that had been at the forefront. What if someone like that got angry enough to start throwing biotics around?

Liara felt as if she was looking at herself doing it when she grabbed Pol by the tunic and pulled the scared woman in close, "Bring. me. to. my. daughter. now."

**2**

Ellyon bursted into the bathroom, returning with her bite-stick she had made in arts&crafts. With some pride, she held it out in front of her, "It's not really nice... I'll make a nicer one, really!"

Aetytha took a knee and looked at the piece of hardwood that Ellyon was showing. Ellyon had intricately engraved the stick with swirling lines that seemed to be flowers and birds, "It's beautiful, dear, why would you want to make a new one? Are those flowers and birds from earth?"

"It's the first time I made one... I wanted it to look japanese... because of mama Shino. But I made mistakes and now it isn't japanese and it doesn't remind me of mama Shino..."

"You... made mistakes?", asked Aria upon looking at the bite-stick, "I have seen art that are bigger mistakes than this."

Ellyon perked up, happy that her first try at art was well received, "I can make one for you too, auntie Aria!"

"Why would I need a bite-stick?"

"You know... as art! Art you can take with you wherever you go and look at whenever you want! To... to make you happy!"

It was hard to remain a rock-hard crime-boss in the presence of Ellyon. Aria's face fleetingly showed a range of emotions and then settled on a little smile, "I would like that."

"Step away from Ellyon!", Liara demanded when she came in, Pol close in her wake, "And why is my daughter naked? What sick things are going on here?"

Ellyon sighed while looking at the ceiling, "Mum, you're making a scene..."

"Mind your tone, young lady! We'll talk about your snarkiness later. Right now, I want to hear an explanation I can live with, before I level this place with a big smile on my face and to go to prison laughing all the way. Am I clear?"

"Now, now, dear. No need to go all T'loak. No offense.", Aetytha said sideways at Aria.

Aria rose a hand nonchalantly, "Oh, none taken. I'm with T'soni on this one. I've been itching to remove this institute from Thessia ever since I kicked down the door."

Sarina Pol found the courage to step in, "I'm... not really sure what's going on. But we have made an error. Ellyon tried to tell us, but we were so busy trying to help her, that we've ended up not helping Ellyon at all. I'm truly very sorry."

"That's not true!", Ellyon said loudly, "I hated school on earth, but here it's awesome. I like being here... You're helping me, headmaster."

"We're not helping you with your counter-biotics, Ellyon.", Sarina said, feeling strangely relieved that Ellyon was the one to support her, "And that's what we told your parents we would do, and succeed at."

"But...", Ellyon gave up. There was no talking to these people.

Aetytha calmly took a place next to Ellyon, "Why don't you take a deep breath, dear, and tell us what's on your mind?"

"I'm afraid that I can't stay here anymore...", Ellyon said, close to tears, "Everybody is angry with , but she's right. I know it! And if mama Shino hears about this, then she'll go ballistic and really take me away from here. But I am being helped here and I'm sure that I would've been able to tell about this. Eventually... But all of you are just doing what you want and no one gives a crap about what I want. It's not fair."

"She got us there.", Aria said after a few seconds in which everybody was silent. Before turning to Ellyon, Liara looked daggers at Aria, who was making a 'I don't know' gesture at that, "Sweetheart, if you want to stay-"

"-I want to stay! Everything is doing she did for me, to help me! I... tried to do the excercises at night, in my room, but it hurts and then I can't concentrate and then I suddenly fall asleep..."

Liara couldn't believe her eustachian tubes, "Are you saying that you're trying so hard that you knock yourself out? Without anyone to look over you? What were you thinking?"

"If I only can visualise it, I can do it. Just as says. I was going to show Grandma and auntie Aria... Maybe they would help me visualising and then I could it. I know I can!"

Liara rubbed her temples and turned to Pol, "Marva, is there any truth to this fiasco?"

"I have lost sight of the well-being of Ellyon, I realise that now.", Pol spoke, standing straight and looking Liara in the eye. Pol took pride in her profession and was not all afraid to recognizing where she went wrong and taking accountability.

"You would've listened in the end!", Ellyon said, "Maybe, in my room, it hurts so much because I'm not being cooled down...", Ellyon moved to a shower and regulated it to be as cold as possible, "If I cool myself down and do what I do in my room, 's excercises work, I know they will! I only need help visualising."

"Okay sweetheart, go on. I'll be here. Just tell me what you need of me to help you.", Liara said.

"No. I need to help me. When it starts to hurt, I can't concentrate... needs to talk me through the excercise and help me visualise. knows what to do..."

"Yes. This might work. Cool down girl. Run traces to visualise. Girl understands, discharges safely, all is it should be." took a breather and continued, "Discharge successful, girl needs only to learn to do it by herself without help, maybe learn to use counter-biotics as a regular biotic, no need to do that off course, but a yes/no/maybe. Could work, will work.", Pol took another breather, "Ready when you are."

"Don't ask.", Liara said as Aria opened her mouth to say something.

"Will need to record session, data invaluable, living counter-biotic first possible safe discharge, no precedent, medical data priceless, helpful if another counter-biotic is diagnosed in the future.", Pol spoke while activating her OT and looking at the people present, "It is not debatable."

**3**

The shower was pretty damn cold. Ellyon stood under it, with her back turned to award everybody and waited till she would start to shiver. Pol was talking medical code into her OT in her salarian way. Sarina was looking at the little asari under the shower and wringing her hands with the most worried look on her face, but she was very relieved that Ellyon had defended both her and her sister. Aria sat on the rim of the ice-bath with a fascinated look on her face and being requested to stay by Ellyon, a little satisfied with one-upping Liara. Liara was mortified and holding her right hand in front of her mouth while her left hand found and held Aetytha's right hand. Aetytha just kept her calm demeanor, but a smile was on her lips as she held Liara's hand.

The only one in a bad place was Ellyon. She started to doubt herself a little... what if she couldn't do it afterall? She didn't dare say it out loud. The people with her were very powerful and it had taken a lot to get them to agree with this at all. She was sure that if she would say she wasn't sure, everything would fall apart. Mama Liara was already close to using her biotics. If mama Liara talked calmy in a hectic situation... bad things would follow. And if mama Shino had shown up instead of mama Liara it would've been a disaster. Mama Shino destroyed the reapers.., who could stop her when she got angry? If there was one thing Ellyon didn't want, it was being taken away from the institute. She had tried modern dance and that was love at first sight. She was just learning basic steps and figures, but she enjoyed it to the fullest. She loved going to class, after she had found that learning was fun afterall and spending her free time in the gymnasctics hall if there was no modern dance class was heaven. It was not smart to get Ellyon talking about acrobatic tumbling. She would just not stop talking about it.

Ellyon was also making friends with a few of the Ardat-Yakshi students. Not too long ago, a young girl was brought in. Her name was Mica and she was always in tears over being Ardat-Yakshi. Scared to be with other Asari, Mica kept to herself. But Ellyon was slowly becoming a friend to the girl.

Ellyon felt like she belonged in the institute. In just three short weeks, her life was coming together and she herself noticed the most change in her behavior. This had to work.

Ellyon stuck her bite-stick between her teeth and placed her hands to the wall. took her cue and and placed her left hand between Ellyon's shoulderblades.

"It starts here, Ellyon, imagine that you see the energy and that you feel it..."

Ellyon nodded, concentrating on where she felt Pol's hand.

"Remember how we talked how you must push the energy down, right down your spine, into your legs, from your legs into your feet and from your feet into the ground...

Ellyon cried through her teeth and bit down harder on the stick as the pain flared up. She wanted to do this and for the first time she understood what she was doing. She wasn't just doing the excercise now, she was actually doing it. She could see the energy, she could feel the energy hurting her badly but the she couldn't get the energy to do what she wanted it to do. Pol kept repeating the excercise to Ellyon in her calm voice, but Ellyon was close to giving up.

Liara couldn't watch anymore of it and stepped forward to call it all off, but Aetytha held her back, "No dear, I think that if Ellyon doesn't do it now, she will never do it. It's heartbreaking, I know, but she's the only one that can do this and she knows like no other how important this is... She was prepared to wait out... while enduring 's bruteforcing. I don't know much about that wonderful wife of yours, but I think I'm witnessing her determination through her daughter here."

Aria huffed, "She's a kid of Shepard, that's true...", Aria rose from her spot at the ice-bath and brought her mouth close to Ellyon's ear, ignoring the fact that the ice-cold shower was bathing her too, "You know what I enjoy the most, Ellyon?", Aria whispered, "I enjoy seeing people fail. I enjoy their shame when they eat their words. I enjoy rubbing their faces in it. I enjoy smirking at them as they grovel before me and ask for forgiveness. There's only one person in the universe who is not at all afraid of me and that's you. But I still wouldn't mind seeing you fail, so don't give me the pleasure and make me eat my words. Deny me my joy, Ellyon. Do it. Do it. Do it. _Do it. Do it now. Do-_"

Ellyon was consumed with pain, concentrating on purging her body from the biotic energy build up in her body and Aria's whispering wasn't helping at first, but as Aria went on, she seemed to fill up all the space in Ellyon's mind. It wasn't so much what Aria was saying, it was in how she was saying it. Aria was mocking Ellyon, but also spurring her on.

Suddenly, Ellyon's mind was clear, the pain bearable and her goal just within her grasp. Ellyon's eyes turned black and her droopy scalpplates firmed up and waved out.

Cracks sprung in the walls, tiles came loose and fell off, mirrors exploded, electricity in the room became severed and waterpipes bursted. Aria and Pol were forefully blown backwards, as they were the closest to Ellyon. Liara, Sarina and Aetytha lost their footing and were only able to remain standing because they were hanging on to eachother.

Then it was over. Ellyon lost control over her body and slumped to her knees. She let her bite-stick just fall out of her mouth and looked down, "Oh gross...", was the last thing she had to say before she was taken away into a blissful darkness.

Liara was the first with Ellyon and took her daughter in her arms, "You did it, you did it!"

Aria came to her elbows and shook her head, "Off course she did it, she's a Shepard.", then she got to her feet all the way, "And admittedly, a T'soni. My credits are on Shepard, though."

"What a major breakthrough!", mustered Pol who was still on the floor, "For Ellyon, but imagine what this means for medical science once I've made sense of the data! Ellyon's reading were off the charts! I have seen the destruction of the AMH first hand, but to actually see Ellyon do it without forcing an epileptic episode... I would almost say that my life is complete and that I would die happy now."

"That can still happen.", Aria smirked.

Sarina helped Pol to her feet, "Look at the damage, Marva, if this is what she can do cooled down and not having a seizure... How are we going to provide her with a safe place to control her counter-biotics?"

Liara fiddled with her OT, "Don't worry about the damage, the Shadow Broker just offered to help and wants you to know that a repair crew is on the way, with the Shadow Broker's compliments."

"The damage is exceptional, if I recall Jaqueline Nough's charts... She wouldn't be able to do achieve this while numb. There would still be damage off course. Sarina, Ellyon hasn't been able to discharge for three weeks since the AMH. I expected something like this, that's why I was using the ice-bath, the water would've absorbed most of the newtons..," Pol realised that a handful of asari faces were turning dark, she quickly added, "But the shower works too. If she discharges every day, the effect shouldn't be this acute. Remember it is all about residual biotic energy, that what Ellyon's body retains. Maybe she needs to discharge two, three times a day, but only Ellyon can feel her body and she'll need to tell us."

As Pol, Sarina and Aetytha were in discussion, Aria kneeled next to Liara and Ellyon. Armed with a washcloth and a handshower she started to clean Ellyon up.

"What are you doing?", hissed Liara.

"Helping you with bathing Ellyon. Everybody is talking about Ellyon, but no one is realising she's laying in her own filth."

"T-thank you..?"

"Just remember this never happened, I have to mind the Bloodpack and the Blue Suns. Eclipse are about the only people who'd understand.", a little smile played on Aria's face, "And she made me eat my words. I have to respect that."

"Just give me the washcloth, Aria. I don't feel comfortable you washing Ellyon, you know... It's a mother's job."

"Agreed.", Aria handed over the washcloth, "I'm perfectly happy being an aunt, anyway."

**4**

With Ellyon laid to rest in her room, unawares of being tucked in by three asari fighting over how children like to be tucked in, peace returned to the institute. Aria left to rule the galaxy (her own words), Aetytha went on to her own things and Pol, Liara and Sarina had retreated to Sarina's office.

Sarina sat at her desk and was exhausted, "What a day and it isn't even noon yet."

"But what a milestone for Ellyon. Mrs T'soni-Shepard, your daughter is very exeptional. She had it all figured out, but I wasn't seeing it. I'm honored that she still has confidence in me."

Liara offered a weak smile, "Ellyon is not like us. Asari I mean. She sees herself as a humasari, as much human as asari. She believes herself to be the first of a new species..."

"Hmmm... that's actually not that farfetched... the Kochira-event, the advent of the first entity of a new species manifesting... It has to start somewhere...", mused Pol, "It is even supported by Ellyon's appearance... The features of her human mother's face echoed in hers, the same eye-color, the single eyebrow above the left eye, but also the long and weak scalpplates, there's no precedent. She can be patient like an asari, but at the same this weird desire to know everything now, to be able to do everything now, down to being angry when told to wait till tomorrow. The uncanny speed with which she makes her mind up... It's very hard to keep up with Ellyon."

"You're describing my bond-mate, Marva.", Liara said, "There are so many decisions made I wish we had made together. Shino looks at choices and it is almost as if she picks one at random. It makes me so frustrated at times."

"Humans don't have the luxury of time, much like the Salarians. They can't afford to spend an hour deciding between two cerials in the supermarket.", Pol said, "If you excuse me, I really need to go and analyse the data."

As Pol left, an orderly entered the office and addressed Sarina, "The students are informed and their minds put at ease. We have decided to cancel classes for the rest of the day. Most of the students are concerned about Ellyon's health and we have gotten some offers to help watch over her. We decided to allow it to those who agree to be monitored at all times. There has been some concern about Aria T'loak's visit, all concerns are about the security of the institute."

Sarina rubbed her temples, "Tell our students the truth, Ilzah, no matter how much security we employ, Aria T'loak will just walk in and out at will. But also tell them she was here for Ellyon specifically. And thank the students for their concern for Ellyon, it's heartwarming."

"Just how strictly monitored will the students be that offered to help watch over Ellyon?", Liara wanted to know, "I know what the FSM wants to achieve, but they're still Ardat-Yakshi."

Ilzah answered with firm voice, "At all times. They won't be left alone with Ellyon. Sadly, despite my wishes and FSM afilliation, you're correct. They are still Ardat-Yakshi and sadly, have to be chaperoned during the most sensitive moments..."

"Then please, extend my gratitude to those students who volunteered.", Liara consented and then to Sarina, "She really does feel at home here. I was expecting a lot of trouble to be honest."

Sarina dismissed the orderly and then turned to Liara, "Ellyon quickly settled in here, I think that when she discovered the modern dance classes, it was decided for her."

Liara smiled at that, "Yes, Ellyon and dancing. Give her a wall-mirror and she'll give you a recital. Shino's mother loves to dance, and Shino did traditional japanese dance in her youth, but in my line there aren't that many dancers. Shino believes it comes from my side though. Still, how will we go from here?"

"I have given it some thought already. We need an Ellyon-proof shower. Other than that, I plan on providing Ellyon with the best the FSM-institute has to offer, just like it does to all its students. Ellyon will have to closely work with Marva.", Sarina sank into thought, "It scares me to realise that we know next to nothing about counter-biotics. We're virtually blind and the only one who can teach us is Ellyon."

"I can help with the shower, I think.", Liara offered, "Just get it made and send the bill to Shadow Broker Interstellar. I'll slip it past the boss. I'll leave you to it, Sarina. I have a lot to do myself."

With a short nod, Liara left Sarina to her work. Sarina sat at her desk pondering the morning for a while and then picked up a data-pad. She had a lot to do too...


	23. Asariception

1

"I'm so jealous of you.", Mica said, "You can leave in the weekends and now you get two days off in the middle of the week."

Mica watched as Ellyon danced. They were alone in the hall, other students prefered to do other things with their free time mostly. Ellyon turned around her axis and her scalpplates swung out as she at the apex of her turn, brought her head around. The she finished with a sudden fall to the ground, "What do you think? The dance symbolizes the life of the thessian swan...", Ellyon asked, still in her pose.

"It's okay, I guess...", Mica judged, "What is christmas anyway?"

"Mica! This is my choreography for the solo-dance regionals! Okay is not going to cut it!"

"You'll win, as usual.", Mica predicted, "You're too good at this. The girl from Asmari College went home crying after the last regionals..."

Ellyon laughed and got up, "Anyone could've beaten that azure mongrel. She dances like a platipus." She walked over to Mica and accepted a towel from the girl, "That's an earth animal."

"Are you really almost an adult? I mean, when you're eightteen? All the girls say you'll be leaving then."

Ellyon inspected herself in the mirror-wall. Time had flown since Ellyon had discovered how to discharge safely. She had grown into a young woman, allthough not taller than an average fifteen year old. That was as Dr. Pol had predicted and Ellyon was okay with it. Her fear of not growing boobs had not come true and with that her fear of remaining a child for the rest of her life was taken away. Being very short she used to her advantage in dance and tumbling and in some sports where being short was helpful, like in sports were being fast and having sweet jukes was a boon.

But she wasn't a child anymore and very relieved to no longer look like one. Ellyon was by all acounts a fully equipped young woman. And almost eightteen.

"I don't know yet, Mica. The FSM has offered me a course to become a teacher here, dance or sports, it would be my choice... but it would be weird to suddenly be a teacher... I wouldn't be one of the girls anymore, but one of them. You know, keeping you from being a sexual monster. I can also take advanced classes here, under an athlete-deal. I compete in sports for the institute and then my parents wouldn't have to pay so much anymore. I don't know what I would want to study. Maybe history like my mum, I don't know."

"I think it's not right that you're an adult soon just because you're born on Earth. Thirty had always been it for asari. You're more mature than I was at eightteen... but you know... why wouldn't asari-law apply to you?"

"I'm an earthling, that's all to it. It's Earth's lock on the door, I guess, it's a pretty crowded planet ever since the reaper-war. Not many off-worlders will settle on Earth because their children will be earthlings if they're not specifically signed to their parent's homeplanet. I believe that mama Liara wanted to have me registered on Thessia, but mama Shino did the registering and she was all cross-eyed over being a mum.", Ellyon giggled, "It had to be her, somebody else might have gotten it right."

Mica absentmindedly played with one of Ellyon's squishy scalpplates, but Ellyon didn't mind. Mica was a very good friend to Ellyon. Maybe there was more than friendship, Ellyon had picked up on the way Mica would look at her from time to time. But flat-out questioning Mica about her feelings was a step Ellyon was hesistant to take. Mica was thirty-three, an adult by asari standards, but in many ways still considered to be a kid... and Mica was of a mind that Ellyon was too young to be considered an adult at all.

"I was too young to really remember the war... but I've read a lot about your parents. I can't believe the way you talk about Admiral Shepard, it's almost disrespectful."

"Don't question me! My mums mean everything to me. Mama Shino gets pretty into it when something happens that even hints at harm to me or mama Liara. It's funnier than a romantic comedy. I'm pretty sure she blows a piston when something happens to mama Liara even though they're divorced now..."

"I'm sorry. I was out of line there. Forgive me?"

Ellyon playfully poked Mica with an elbow, "Sure, but the books on Admiral Shepard are painful to read. Shepard was this, Shepard was that, Shepard saved us all... I always want to shout out that the Shepard in the books is not my mother. Because I have no clue who that Shepard is everybody is talking about.", Ellyon laughed and continued, "Mama Shino is the sweetest woman alive. You can quote me on that."

"I'm looking forward to tomorrow, it's my chance to see Admiral Shepard for real. Everybody is really excited about that."

Ellyon sighed, "I know it... It's hard not to miss the banner... 'Welcome Admiral Shepard'. She'll get all nervous and fidgetty and then she'll start to mix up her words and look like a fool in front of everybody, and that will only make it worse. And it always ends with mama Liara rescuing her, just like it always goes down on Mindoir."

"That bad, huh?"

"Mindoir is actually the worst. We're even on creditchits there.", Ellyon sighed. She didn't want to talk about her parents anymore. She decided to confront Mica instead, "I think that being Ardat-Yakshi is a choice."

Mica let go of Ellyon's scalpplates, "What?!"

"I mean killing your partner... You're Ardat-Yakshi, so what? I believe you have the choice to kill or not to kill. You're the boss over yourself, and that means that you've a choice. You love me, don't you?"

"Ellyon... How can you say all of that, out of the blue?"

"Would it have had a different meaning if I had asked you to sit down first?"

Mica thought about that, "N-no, I guess not... But you just brushed all of what it means to be Ardat-Yakshi aside as if the truth doesn't exist, Ellyon. Ardat-Yakshi who are never stopped leave hundreds of victims in their wake."

"They do that because they choose to be predators as Ardat-Yakshi. No one dared them to go and kill, no one ordered them and no one made them. They made a choice. Have you made that choice?"

"I... I can't take the chance. I killed my first partner. She was my best friend, Ellyon, and I killed her!"

"Off course you killed her, how could you not? It's not like you knew that you are Ardat-Yakshi. But now you know, and that means that now you have a choice. Give me your hand."

Mica took a few steps back, confused and unwilling, "Ellyon..."

"Stop being so nervous and give me your hand.", Mica extended her hand shakenly and Ellyion took it in a firm grip, "Now kill me."

"Ellyon!"

"You're Ardat-Yakshi, go 'embrace eternity' on me and kill me. Easy."

"NO! NOO!"

**2**

Mica found herself on a strange planet. She was in a park and happy music was playing. Humans were strolling around in thick winter-outfits and their breath froze as they breathed out. There was a weird white powder on the ground and not far away, children were playing with it, kneeding the powder into balls and throwing the balls at eachother. They seemed to be having a lot of fun with it. It was getting dark and colorful festive lights shone brightly everywhere. There was a happy mood in the air, almost magical.

"Hide Park, New London, a few years ago.", Ellyon spoke softly, "Christmas Eve."

"We're on Earth?"

"Not really, we're in one of my memories. I choose to show you this, just like you have the choice to kill me. I could've chosen to do nothing, just like you have the choice to do nothing. Come along, we live close by."

Mica followed Ellyon automatically, "This too weird... this isn't real?"

"No, it's real. Just not real-real. Not really.", Ellyon smiled, "It's a memory of the last christmas I had on Earth. You asked me what Christmas was, remember?"

"Yes... but what does that have to do with making choices?"

"Well, you can choose to celebrate Christmas, or not. That's a choice. But actually, right now I just want to show you what Christmas means to me, I don't expect you to understand. It's very exciting to me that tomorrow we'll be having Christmas again... we skipped two years because of me getting a handle on being a counter-biotic. It will be awesome."

"Okay, I'm smarter than that. Do you have a choice to not be a counter-biotic, Ellyon?"

"Watch out, Mica, this is a very busy road. Just follow me, I've jaywalked this road for years, I know when to run for the other side. Now!", Ellyon took Mica by the hand and dragged her to the opposite boardwalk. Cars honked and swerved and Mica screamed, "Stop screaming. We were never in danger.", Ellyon laughed heartily, "You should see your face! I told you I jaywalked this road for years, I was eleven when I first made a break for it. Mama Shino grounded me for three weeks. But the rush is totally worth it!"

"Ellyon, those are ground-cars! We could have died!"

"Yes! That's the point of jaywalking a busy road! You could die! It's like train-surfing!", Ellyon sobered, "But this is a memory and even if I had made a mistake, the cars would not have hit us. Like I said, we were never in danger. To answer your question, no I don't have a choice to be a counter-biotic or not. But I do have a choice in how I handle being a counter-biotic. Logic therefore dictates that you have a choice in how you handle being an Ardat-Yakshi."

Ellyon halted before a door. A santa-claus decoration was taped to the door. Ellyon placed her hand on the bio-lock on the door and the door swung open, "Our house, don't mind the stairs, they look like we're a poor family, but once we're really inside it's really much different. Come on in."

Ellyon started to climb the stairs, Mica followed closely, "How are you able to do this? You're only seventeen... I don't even think that a ninehundred-ninety-nine years old matriarch can do this. Not without killing herself, anyway."

"I don't know... Mama Liara thinks it's because of my autism. I just enjoy it. When I miss mama Shino a lot, I go visit her in my memories. Her antics always make me happy."

"There you go again. Antics... It sounds so disrespectful to me."

They arrived at the landing and Ellyon placed her hand on another door. From behind the door, happy voices and laughing sounded. Happy music was playing and the smell of food was heavy on the air, "When we go in, they won't see us or anything. I know it's weird with everything else you saw already, but I'm not that good that I can interact with my memories on that level. Opening doors I can do, I guess, because it is so very a basic thing to do... I don't know."

"But I hear music and I smell food, how is that possible?"

"I guess it's because it's a very strong memory, or maybe I'm making some things up.", Ellyon shrugged, "It doesn't matter anyway, since I'm not doing this to get an answer to the mysteries of my brain." She stepped into the room and made room for Mica to enter. Mica saw a festively decorated living-room, and there were a lot of people talking and enjoying eachother's company.

"Goddess! Is that Zaaed Massani? And... Garrus Vakarian, the Primarch of Palaven!"

"I know who they are, Mica.", Ellyon smiled, "I grew up with those people. Every few years, they all gather at our London house for a Christmas together. It takes a lot of planning, so they can't do it every year. The awkward kid trying to guess what's in the presents is me, almost four years ago."

"But where is Admiral Vas Normandy? Isn't she Vakarian's girlfriend?", Mica asked while trying to spot even more celebreties.

"I believe that at this point auntie Tali was either injecting the Salarian Solution or trying to puke because she mistakenly ate human food. You never know with quarians."

"Okay, what's the Salarian Solution? I have never heard of it before..."

"It's a salarian remedy that bolsters the spacer-quarian's immune-system, allowing them to go without their suits for a few hours a day. But that's really all I know, apart from that I've read on the extranet that Rannoch-born quarians don't need to use their suits at all if they take daily injections. Look at how my mums are together."

Mica didn't look at Shinobu and Liara, but instead studied Ellyon's face, "Why is that so important to you, Ellyon? They're wifes, so isn't the fact that they love eachother a logical conclusion?"

The scene changed to a bedroom Mica recognized instantly. It was hers. She was embracing an asari she also instantly recognized, it was her best friend, "No, Ellyon. You can't do this."

"It's your strongest memory. Just like my last Christmas in London is mine. And they are related."

"How are they related? Did you kill your parents that time? Without wanting to? Anais shouldn't be dead, but she is and it is my fault. I'm dangerous, Ellyon. I kill people."

"You're only dangerous because you didn't know. The only choice you didn't have is who you love, and that's why my memory and yours are related. Mama Shino can't help it, she loves mama Liara. You loved your best friend and that wasn't by choice either. You killed her because you didn't know you are an Ardat-Yakshi, but you had no way of knowing that. It's the same with me, I killed because I didn't know that I'm a counter-biotic. Now that I know it, I'm not dangerous. Unless I choose to be dangerous."

"I'm sorry, but you're not like me, Ellyon."

The scene changed to the examination room in the AMH, moments before Ellyon's involuntary discharge. "Watch.", was all Ellyon said. Mica looked on as an elder asari and a few ACS-agents were trying to restrain Ellyon. Ellyon seemed to convulse and started to shake, causing confusion in the people fighting her, then, a bright flash. Mica shielded her eyes against the brightness. When she could see again, she saw unmatched chaos.

The scene changed to Mica's bedroom again, the Almari-PD was busy arresting her and she went along crying and calling out the name of her best friend.

"We don't have the same condition, but our stories are alike. What happened in the AMH will never happen again. From there on out, I had the choice to become someone else, and I still have the choice to be a raging smartbomb. For now I like being someone else."

Mica walked over to the bed and watched as a coroner was examining the body of her dead friend, "I miss her. We had so many plans. So you really think it's that easy? Now that I know I'm Ardat-Yakshi, I have a choice?"

"I know you do. The FSM build a great institute, but it's foundation is still fear. You're in prison for life just because you might be a sexual predator... I don't see how that's right. Don't believe that you don't have a choice because that choice has been stolen from you."

**3**

"No! NOO! N-", Mica stopped fighting Ellyon as she was adruptly back in reality. Ellyon let calmly go of Mica's hand, but she was exhausted and needed to lower herself to the floor. The whole memory-projection hadn't lasted for longer than a split-second and it had taken most of her strength. Ellyon wiped her forehead with her towel.

"You... you're a monster, Ellyon. I thought you were a friend. Someone I could trust. Instead you invade my memories, talking about choices and lofty stuff about love, but what do you know? If Earth allows you to run free, they're making the biggest mistake since the reaper invasion. You belong in here, forbidden to ever set a foot outside the institute for the rest of your life, just like us Ardat-Yakshi. You're a seventeen year old asari with powers that are totally out of whack. You're too powerful for your own good and if I'm totally honest, too stupid for it too. I bet you didn't even think about what you were going to do.", said Mica, shuddering from anger.

"Oh, I thought it through. The human way, on my feet.", Ellyon answered, "Maybe I'm a nitwit when it comes to love, but I know it isn't a choice. Choices I understand, all those people you saw in our London house, they all made choices far darker than to kill or not to kill. Mama Shino had to make a choice between saving Lieutenant Alenko or Chief Williams, between saving half a million batarians, or leaving them to die, between destroying the reapers or striking a deal with them. And she couldn't sleep on those choices, she had to make them on the spot. But she never made the obvious choice."

Mica crossed her arms, "Oh this will be good, allright miss lifelesson, what's the obvious choice?"

Ellyon leaned backwards, supporting herself by placing her hands on the floor, "The one you're making and keep making because it is easier than actually making a choice; Fuck this and let someone else figure it out."

Mica started to say something, stopped herself and shook her head. Then she tried again, "I belong here, Ellyon. Whether or not you want to believe that is your business. I can't believe that I ever thought that you were a friend. You're cruel, thoughtless and self-important. And I'm done with you." Mica turned away and stalked out of the hall. Ellyon didn't try to stop Mica. She had taken her shot and missed. She remained for a while longer, looking at her toes while she wriggled them.


	24. The get ready

**[I have waited so long to bring you fans of Humasari this chapter. Originally, this chapter's vibe and some chapters after this one using my old style were meant to be published around christmas 2012. But my disease ruined those plans (it ruined christmas 2012 and a few months into 2013, actually.). So yeah, a belated christmas for the Shepards. This many times reworked chapter was to be a christmas-gift to all those who begged me in PM's to have mercy on Shinobu's and Liara's pwn-all love for eachother. I love it and I hope you Shinobu and Liara fans will love it too. A belated merry christmas 2012 to you!]**

_It must be christmas time... -The Pretenders_

_I want you to stay, come back! -The Mighty Sparrow_

_I did not have sex with that woman! -Bill Clinton_

_Your window! -Liv Moon_

**1**

Shinobu hobbled over to a couch and sat down with a sigh of relief. Liara was expecting her to drop down like Shinobu was wont to do; like a man with her legs far apart, leaning backwards with her arms over the shoulder-rests of the couch. But Shinobu sat down like a lady, much to Liara's surprise. As Shinobu carefully loosened the bands on her heels and even took them off without opening her legs the slightest, Liara marveled, "Who are you and what have you done to Shino?" Shinobu laughed her waterfall of sound and made a gesture to the wall where Liara had displayed all of Ellyon's sports accomplishments, "Now that I'm not wearing my N7-armor everyday anymore, I guess that my femininety is returning with a vengeance. But who are you and what did you do to our daughter?"

Liara moved into the half-open kitchen and started to sort out the christmas shopping. She looked at the plucked and dressed thessian ostrich they had bought as a replacement for an earth turkey. It looked authentic enough and like an earth turkey, it needed to simmer in an oven for an hour or six to be done too, "I hope that Ellyon won't mind it isn't turkey...", Liara doubted, "I'm afraid she'll be disappointed."

"Ellyon doesn't care about the food.", it sounded from the couch in the living-room, "She just insists on making the stuffing and preparing the turkey because that's 'cosy', you know that. We're going to have to sit in the kitchen and have small talk for an afternoon. I can already hear her say it 'No mum, you don't have to help, you'll only cut your fingers..."

"...and go all cross-eyed.", Liara finished with a chuckle.

Shinobu had gotten up from the couch and walked in, "I take it that large door over there hides the pantry?" Liara looked up from the bird, "It does. Why?" Shinobu looked at Liara in her familiar way, stoic as ever, "I'll store away the dry goods."

Liara started to object, but then quickly changed her mind, "Yeah, that's good. While you do that, I'll find some pack-paper that at least hints at christmas and wrap Ellyon's gift." Shinobu looked at the gift, it was a big box without much smuck, but riddled with krogan idolic scribe, "I understand why she only wanted one gift... C5000,- for a Tjikketjabbe shotgun?"

"A competion-grade Tjikketjabbe _shottie_.", Liara corrected, "Ellyon wants to try out for the Rannoch Reclaimers, it appears the quarians are the first to actually field a professional team that can compete in the major league on Tuchanka." Shinobu turned away from the pantry and collected few canned goods from the kitchen-counter, "Really? Unbelievable, those space-hippies are making the most out of the Salarian Solution, aren't they? But Thessia has a Tjikketjabbe team, right? Team Thessia, or something like that?" Liara smiled, "By her own words, Ellyon doesn't want to be found dead near those stumbling fools. I have to agree, we asari are sky-ballers to the core. Team Thessia gets steamrolled in Rules Tuchanka matches. I have been to a few of Ellyon's little leage games. She spends more time in time-out than in the field and gets constantly lectured about the fact that the thessian little leage is Rules Royal. No agressive body-checks, dirty tackles and elbow-landings... or firing the shottie in the face of an opponent... And I'm sure I saw her use her counter-biotics a few times. Call it a mother's eye. But she has no biotic-field and knows how to mask her biotics, the little sneak."

"Wait... getting shot with a plastic Tjikketjabbe shottie is already painful, and this is a competition grade composite-shottie?"

Liara finished wrapping Ellyon's gift, "Firing the shottie at an opponent is fair play in Rules Tuchanka, in Rules Royal it is only allowed to target the body of an opponent who's going for the ball. You should be happy, Shino. Ellyon wants to become a professional athlete. In the roughest sport of the galaxy, but all the same, she won't be a soldier." Shinobu closed the door to the pantry, she had stored away all the groceries, "Yes, I guess I should be. But why a full-contact sport? Why not chess, or, or, high-stakes quilting..? You think she has a chance to make the selection in the Rannoch Reclaimers?"

"I think that the try-out is a formality, Tali and Garrus are important sponsors... And Ellyon really is good at it. It reminds me of you, charging Cerberus positions.", Liara said casually while leaning with her back to the counter, "She moves like... you."

Shinobu stepped in close to Liara and gave her a little smile, one that only Liara knew was there, one of Shinobu's almost unperceivable shifts in her demeanor. Liara could smell Shinobu's perfume when she was so close, it was a vintage earth-perfume. 'Aranxtha', Liara knew. A vial of the perfume costs a small fortune and Shinobu was quite liberal with it at times. This time, she had it just right, the scent just barely reached Liara as Shinobu inched closer.

"Like me, huh?", Shinobu asked. It sounded a little rough-voiced. Liara brought up her right hand and lightly touched Shinobu's cheek. Shinobu leaned her head a little to Liara's hand, her eyes looking away, but when Shinobu dared to look straight in Liara's eyes, Liara pulled Sinobu close for the most heartfelt and passionate kiss Liara had given her yet.

Shinobu was taken by surprise, she wasn't even sure why she had moved in so close to Liara. Maybe she had done it because once Ellyon would be there, all chances to be actually close with Liara would be gone. When the kiss ended, Shinobu was a bit confused and searched for Liara's eyes, who was gathering her senses herself.

"I...", Shinobu stammered, not really sure how to continue and Liara merely breathed, "Yeah..." Shinobu looked away from Liara again and trying not to sound all haughty she spoke softly, "So... how about that, huh, a professional athlete..."

Liara suddenly erupted in anger, "Goddess, Shino!". She grabbed Shinobu and swung her around before pulling her back in. Liara muzzled the nook between Shinobu's neck and shoulder while her hands impatiently grabbed at Shinobu's dress. Shinobu was taken by surprise and went along first, but when she begun to understand what Liara was after, she put up a little struggle that Liara firmly countered.

"Liara...", Shinobu weakly spoke, "You ripping my dress..." Liara didn't listen to that, impatiently groping away at Shinobu's delicate silk dress, ripping the fabric while she was trying to stop Shinobu from fighting her as she was busy trying to get her hands under the dress. Shinobu surrendered when Liara finally had both her hands on Shinobu's thighs. Liara stopped and inhaled sharply when her hands felt Shinobu's bare skin, warm and slightly moist.

Shinobu reached backwards and tried to get her hands on Liara's slacks in an effort to pull them down. Liara sunk her teeth in Shinobu's shoulder to make her stop. This would be no competition, not this time. Shinobu was here, in her arms right now and Goddess help the puny human, she was at Liara's mercy. Liara's hands found Shinobu's lacey finery and for the first time in the twenty-one years that Liara and Shinobu had known eachother, Liars ripped Shinobu's finery at the bands and roughly did away with the destroyed panties. Shinobu tried to yield, tried to kiss, tried to caress back, but Liara wouldn't have any of it.

Shinobu froze when her vision blurred as Liara's fingers effortlessly found the spots that gave Shinobu the most pleasure. Her breath became erratic as Liara's fingers sometimes invaded her womanhood, or threatened to do so. Shinobu wanted so much to be a bigger part of it, but at a certain point, when the bolts of pleasure were setting her abdomen on fire and were making her heart skip beats, she just leaned back at Liara.

Never before had Liara loved Shinobu like that, almost like Shinobu had made love to Liara for the time they were married. Liara shared hard, intent on getting hers, one way or the other. Taking cues from Shinobu's shifting and moaning and little cries, Liara started to adjust to Shinobu's pushing rythm in her hand.

Shinobu closed her eyes. Too much. Too overwhelming. Shinobu cried out and went limp as her climax took possession of her sanity and they crashed to the floor. Breathing heavy, tears streaming down her face as she was in the throes of her climax, Shinobu tried to get away from Liara. She wanted some space to get to her senses, to understand what just had happened. Liara was not done yet. She grabbed Shinobu and turned her on her back. With brisk hands, she ripped the body of Shinobu's dress open and roughly shored the bra up to free Shinobu's breasts.

Liara placed her hands firmly on Shinobu's breasts, her right hand smearing Shinobu's moisture as Liara softly, but still firmly, kneeded Shinobu's breasts.

"Are you ready?", Liara whispered with heavy breath. Shinobu shook her head, "N-not so close after... I just cli-"

Liara shrugged as she interrupted Shinobu, "Embrace eternity."

The both of them screamed.

Then it went dark.

**2**

Shinobu was the first to come to. "I'm alive...", was the first thing she said before she became aware of Liara laying sprawled on her, with one hand holding Shinobu by the hair. "How about that.", Liara whispered an with unstable voice. Liara had tried to be sarcastic, but that went totally over Shinobu's head.

"We finally had kitchen-sex, tentacle monster."

Liara giggled, "We should get divorced more often."

"We also had sex infront of an open window..."

Liara froze in shock, "Goddess! I didn't realise that..." Shinobu laughed, "Hey, it's just another crazy thing in our lives, I've come to accept it.", she checked her OT and started, "Oof, Liara, we've been out for an hour! That must have been the meanest embrace eternity you've ever done! We still have to decorate the house! Oh my God..."

"Three years of being angry with you...", Liara mused while she soflty pulled Shinobu's hair, "It had to come out sometime. Oh, I'll just tell Ellyon that we thought it would be awesome if we waited till tonite for decorating the house, to create a christmas-eve spirit. She'll be all bouncy over that and find a way to cook the turky and to decorate the house at the same time. We can save time if we take a shower together. But no ideas, Shino. We're still very much divorced."

As Liara got up and helped Shinobu to her feet, she couldn't help but smile at the wreckage she had wrought on Shinobu, still she managed to sound sincere, "I'm sorry about your dress..."

Shinobu lightly shrugged, "For an embrace eternity like that, you can rip me out of my skin and I still wouldn't care... I look better in a shirt and jeans anyway. Siobhan just loves me in a dress and... You know what, I shouldn't have brought that up..."

Liara was done, all of this, it seemed so unfair to her. What just happened had felt so right and now that she had exacted her revenge on Shinobu, all her anger was gone. All that she had left was a burning love for that fickle human who now lived with another human because Liara had to go and dissolve their unity. Liara took Shinobu in a tight hug, "I don't want you leave again.", was all she could say before she started to cry earnest tears.


End file.
